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THE ALBION SERIES 

OF 

(^ngfo^^axon anb (>ni65fe (^ngfis^ (po^tt^ 

J. W. BRIGHT AND G. L. KITTREDGE 
GENERAL EDITORS 



Zhc HIbion Series. 

This series will comprise the most 
important Anglo-Saxon and Middle 
English poems in editions designed to 
meet the wants of both the scholar 
and the student. Each volume will 
ordinarily contain a single poem, 
critically edited, and provided with 
an introduction, notes, and a full 
glossary. 



THE 



SEVEN SAGES OF ROME 



EDITED FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS, WITH 

INTRODUCTION, NOTES, 

AND GLOSSARY 



BY 



KILLIS CAMPBELL 

Adjunct Professor of English in the University of Texas 







GINN & COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 
1907 



IV7 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 


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IAN 2g 1907 


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PREFACE 

No less than nine Middle English manuscripts of The Seven Sages of 
Rome have survived to the present time. Yet only two of these manu- 
scripts have until now been published, — one the Auchinleck (A)/ by 
Weber,2 in 1810; the other, the Cambridge MS. Dd. I. 17 (D), by 
Wright,'' in 1845. The need for a new edition of The Seven Sages, 
then, is obvious. And this need has long been recognized. It is now 
more than twenty years since Professor Kolbing announced that he 
would undertake to edit the entire volume of Middle English manu- 
scripts of the poem ; * later the Early English Text Society announced 
an edition of the Cotton MS. (C) — the basis of the present edition — 
by the lamented Dr. Robert Morris ; and still more recently the Scot- 
tish Text Society has promised an edition of the Asloan MS. (As) by 
Professor Varnhagen. I should not omit to say also that the Early 
English Text Society has for several years advertised as in preparation 
an edition of C by Dr. Squires, and that it is now seeking an editor 
for the whole of Balliol MS. 354, in which B occurs. My purpose to 
edit the Cotton MS. I first announced in 1898, in my dissertation, 
A Study of the Romance of The Seven Sages with Special Reference to 
the Middle English Versions.^ I am glad now, after eight years of 
necessarily intermittent effort, to see my promise made good, 

1 The following abbreviations and symbols have been used for the Middle Eng- 
lish manuscripts : A = Auchinleck MS. ; Ar = MS. Arundel 140; As = the Asloan 
MS.; B= MS. Balliol 354; C= MS. Cotton Galba E. ix; cr = the lost manu- 
script whence C and R were derived; D = Cambridge University MS. Dd. I. 17; 
E=MS. Egerton 1995; F - Cambridge University MS. Ff. II. 38; R = MS. 
Rawlinson Poet. 175; x = the lost Middle English manuscript whence y and D 
were derived ; Y = the group of manuscripts (A, Ar, E, B, F, C, R) derived from y ; 
y = the lost Middle English manuscript whence Y was derived. For a fuller list 
of abbreviations used in the Introduction and Notes, see p. 148 of this volume. 

2 Metrical Romances of the Tliirteetith, Foiirteenth, and Ffteenth Centuries, 
Edinburgh, 1810, III, pp. 8-108. ^ Percy Society Publications, XVI, pp. i f. 

* See Englische Studien, 1883, VI, p. 442. ^ P. 42. 



vi PREFACE 

Since the printing of my dissertation I have come to learn (through 
Professor A. S. Napier ^) of another copy of the same redaction as that 
represented by C, — namely, the Bodleian MS. Rawlinson Poet. 175 (R). 
The discovery of R naturally enhanced the value of C. x\t the same 
time it gave rise to the question whether it would not be wise to make 
R rather than C the basis of my edition, for the handwriting of R is per- 
haps fifty years older than the handwriting of C. The chief considerations 
that led me to give the preference to C are, first, that R is incomplete, 
and, secondly, that C, though transcribed somewhat later than R, is 
nevertheless quite as archaic in its spelling and, besides, represents in 
several minor respects a more accurate transcription. Still, to meet 
any apprehensions as to the wisdom of my choice and to lend greater 
thoroughness to my undertaking, I have given in footnotes the variants 
of R from C. 

In the Introduction I have attempted, besides considering in detail 
the English versions, to bring together in compact form the results of 
modern scholarly investigation of the Oriental versions of The Seven 
Sages, to restate the problem of the transmission of the story to West- 
ern Europe, and to classify anew the many redactions made in France, 
Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland, Scandinavia, and Russia. In this part 
of my Introduction I have done little more than reproduce what I con- 
ceive to be the most approved results of the investigations of others. 

But in the discussion of the English versions I have had to rely 
almost entirely upon myself. My monograph, referred to above, fur- 
nished much of the material for this section' and a point of departure 
for the rest. The chief additions are the fuller treatment of the later 
English versions and the detailed consideration of the two manuscripts 
(C and R) represented in the text. 

After the discussion of the English versions, I have undertaken a 
listing of the variants and analogues of the stories contained in The 
Seven Sages, a task that I was both eager and loath to enter upon, — 
eager because of the fascination that such work affords one with literary- 
historical leanings, and loath because of the conviction that I could not 
make such a list by any means exhaustive in the time at my disposal. 
The task was undertaken, however, and I am encouraged to hope that 
it has not been in vain ; though I am now, more than ever, convinced 

^ vSee Publications of the Modem Language Association of America, 1899, XIV, 
PP- 459 f- 



PREFACE vii 

that my list must be far from complete. It is for this reason that I 
have set the Originals and Analogues at the end of the Introduction, 
so that, in case a second edition of this volume be called for, the Hst 
may be more readily supplemented. For any information as to addi- 
tions that ought to be made, I shall be most grateful. 

In the editing of the text, the reading of the Cotton MS. has been 
faithfully adhered to except in the following particulars : some twenty 
emendations of what appear to be scribal errors have been made ; marks 
of punctuation have been inserted, the lines have been numbered, and 
paragraphs have been indented ; capitalization has been normalized 
according to modern standards ; all abbreviations have been expanded ; 
the word division has been modernized ; and information concerning 
the foliation of the manuscript and concerning the number and title of 
each story has been inclosed in brackets in the margins. Emendations 
are indicated in the body of the text by brackets, the reading of the 
manuscript being invariably given in the footnotes. Abbreviated letters 
or words are italicized. The variations from C exhibited by R, which 
are presented in the footnotes, have not been edited, but are given 
diplomatically except for the expansion of abbreviations. 

The Notes are few. By taking fuller account of the many conven- 
tional phrases and by entering parallel passages from other romances, 
I could have enlarged this section considerably ; but I have excused 
myself from this labor in the belief that it must have involved, in 
the main, a repetition of what has been done by Zupitza, Kolbing, 
Schmirgel, Mead, and others. 

The Glossary is larger than I should have wished it. It is not meant 
to be exhaustive, but, except for a few verbs, like have and be, whose 
inflection, I felt, must be recorded, includes only such words as, in my 
judgment, might not be easily intelligible to the average reader into 
whose hands the book will fall. 

Throughout my labors I have been generously aided by others. My 
chief indebtedness is to the General Editors of the " Albion Series," 
Professors Bright and Kittredge. It was Professor Bright who first 
aroused in me a liking for mediaeval story ; he subsequently aided me 
most substantially in the preparation and the printing of my Study of 
The Seven Sages ; and he has been of constant service to me in the 
preparation of the present edition, giving me freely of his time in the 
reading of manuscript and proof sheets, and aiding me all along by his 



viii PREFACE 

intelligent sympathy. To Professor Kittredge also my indebtedness is 
large ; he has read all of the book either in manuscript or in proof, 
and has given me a host of valuable suggestions. A real debt, also, I 
owe to Professor Morgan Callaway, Jr., of the University of Texas, who 
has read most of the book both in manuscript and in proof, and who 
has ever been ready with counsel no less valuable than cheerfully given. 
I am glad, also, to acknowledge certain services done me by my former 
esteemed instructor. Professor William Hand Browne, of Johns Hopkins 
University; by my colleague. Dr. Reginald Harvey Griffith; by my 
former pupil, Mr. Stanley Royal Ashby, now of Merton College, Oxford ; 
and by the Librarian of the University of Texas, Mr. Phineas Lawrence 
Windsor. It gives me pleasure, too, to express my appreciation of 
the courtesies shown me by the authorities in the British Museum, in 
the Bodleian Library, in the Library of the University of Edinburgh, 
and in the Peabody Library at Baltimore. -^ q 

Austin, Texas 
September i, 1906 



CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION: Page 

A. The Earlier History of The Seven Sages xi 

I. The Oriental Versions xi 

II. Transmission to Western Europe xv 

III. European Versions other than English xvii 

The Dolopathos xviii 

The Seven Sages of Rome xxi 

B. The English Versions xxxv 

I. The Middle English Versions xxxvi 

A Brief Description of the Manuscripts .... xxxvi 

The Interrelation of the Manuscripts xl 

Authorship Ivii 

Place and Date of Composition Iviii 

Source lix 

II. Later English Versions Ix 

C. The Coiton-Rawlinson Redaction Ixvi 

Description of the Manuscripts Ixvi 

Relationship of the Two Manuscripts Ixxi 

Date of Composition Ixxii 

Dialect Ixxiii 

Meter ' Ixxvi 

SOME ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES Ixxviii 

TEXT I 

NOTES 147 

GLOSSARY 187 

INDEX 207 



INTRODUCTION 

A. THE EARLIER HISTORY OF TBE SEVEN SAGES 

I. THE ORIENTAL VERSIONS 

The Seven Sages of Rome belongs to the goodly company of stories 
which had their origin in the East. The parent version has not come 
down to us, but it is very generally believed that it was of Indian com- 
position.^ When the parent version was made, we can only conjecture 

— perhaps about the fifth century B.C. What form it took is likewise 
uncertain. The story underlying the framework may first have existed 
independently of the stories it contains in the form in which we first 
find it ; though, even in that case, it is reasonably certain that the 
stories were embodied in it before it left India. 

From India The Seven Sages passed to Arabia, where, perhaps about 
the eighth century of our era, it assumed — in the hands of one Musa 

— the form preserved more or less faithfully in the eight Eastern ver- 
sions that have survived. This early Arabic version, however, has been 
lost. Of the eight surviving versions which constitute the Eastern 
group, one is in Syriac, one in Greek, one in Hebrew, one in Old 
Spanish, one in Arabic, and three are in Persian. In its Eastern form 
The Seven Sages is usually known as the Book of Sindibad. 

The Book of Sindibad tells the story which furnishes the background 
or framework of The Seven Sages very much as does the Western typi- 
cal version, The Seven Sages of Ro?ne. This underlying story may be 
briefly summarized as follows : A young prince is tempted by his 
stepmother, the queen. She, being rebuffed by him, accuses him of 
attempting to violate her, and he is condemned to death. His life is 
saved by seven wise men, who secure a stay of execution of the royal 

1 Benfey {Orient iciid Occident, III, pp. 177 f.) proposed an ultimate basis in the 
Indian story of Kunala and A9oka, and this theory has been accepted by Cassel 
{Mischle Sindbad, Berlin, 1888, pp. 10 f., 61 f.). 



xii INTRODUCTION 

decree by entertaining the king through seven days with tales showing 
the wickedness of woman, the queen meantime recounting stories to 
offset those of the sages. On the eighth day the prince, who has 
remained silent up to that time, speaks in his own defense, and the 
queen is put to death. 

In this underlying framework the Eastern and the Western type 
agree in broad outline. But the two types differ radically in the stories 
they contain ; they have, at most, only four stories in common. Another 
important difference between the two is in the number of stories in 
each : while in the Western versions each sage tells but one story and 
there are accordingly no more than fifteen stories in all, usually in the 
Eastern versions each of the sages tells two stories and there are in 
consequence at least a third more stories than in any of the Western 
versions. An even more salient difference is found in that, in the East, 
the instruction of the Prince is intrusted, not (as in the Western ver- 
sions ^) to the seven sages, but to one man, the philosopher Sindibad. 
This Sindibad is the central figure of the Eastern versions ; and it is 
for this reason that the Eastern form of The Seven Sages has been called 
the Book of Sindibad. 

The name Sindibad very probably goes back to India ; for it appears 
in all four of the earlier and most authentic Eastern versions : the 
Syriac Siiidban, the Greek Syntipas, the Hebrew Mischle Sindbad, 
and the Persian Sindibad-nameh. 

The name of the King is, in the Syriac and the Greek, Kurus ; in 
the Old Spanish, Alcos {Al- Ciirus ? ^) ; in the Hebrew, Pai Fi/r (or per- 
haps Kai Fur, or King Porus ^) ; other versions do not name the King. 
The name of the wicked Queen, as normally in the Western versions, 
is not given. Neither is the name of the Prince given. The names of 
the sages are mentioned in only one Eastern version, the Hebrew.* 

The oldest surviving version of the Eastern group is the Syriac Sind- 
ban,^ the date of which is placed by Noldeke ^ in the tenth century. 

1 Except the Dolopathos, which, as will be shown later, is unique among 
Western versions. ^ Cassel, Mischle Sindbad, p. 212. ^ Cassel, p. 61. 

* These names are, according to Cassel (pp. 219 f.), Sindibad, Hippocrates, Apu- 
leius, Lucian, Aristotle, Pindar, and Homer. 

^ Edited by Baethgen, Sindban, oder die Sieben IVeisen Meister, Leipzig, 1879. 
See also, for an English translation, H. Gollancz in Fo/k Lore, 1S97, VIII, pp. 99 f. ; 
and for a French translation, F. Macler, Conies Syriaqjies : Histoire de Sindban, 
Paris, 1903, P Zeitschr. d. d. morg. Gesellschaft, 1867, XXXIII, pp. 513 f. 



THE ORIENTAL VERSIONS xiii 

The source of the Sindban appears to have been the lost eighth- 
century Arabic text of Musa. The text of the Sindban is not complete, 
but most of it remains. A derivate from this version is the Greek 
Syntipas. 

The Greek version, Syntipas^ is very much fuller of detail and more 
elaborate in style than its original. Its author, according to the pro- 
logue, was one Michael Andreopulus, As to its date there has been 
difference of opinion ; Comparetti held it to be the second half of the 
eleventh century, others place it later.^ 

The Old Spanish Libro de los Engannos^ like the Syriac Sindban, 
found its source in the lost Arabic text of Musa. Its prologue estab- 
lishes its date as 1253. In contents and order of stories the Old 
Spanish version is naturally nearest to the Syriac and the Greek versions. 
It seems to have exerted no influence whatever on The Seven Sages in 
Europe. 

The Hebrew Mischle Sindbad^ stands somewhat apart from the other 
Eastern versions. It contains three stories which are not found in any 
other version ; and it has one important trait possessed by no other 
Eastern version in that it gives the names of the sages, a trait which it 
shares, however, with the Western versions. This and other evidence, 
later adduced in the section on the transmission of The Seven Sages to 
the West,^ seem to make it not improbable that the Western group found 
its source in this version. As to the date of the Mischle Sindbad 
scholars are by no means agreed ; Comparetti would place it in the 
thirteenth century, but Cassel, Benfey, and all the earUer scholars 
considered it as more ancient than the Syntipas.^ 

1 Edited first by Boissonade, Syntipas, Paris, 1828 ; later by Eberhard, Fabiilae 
Romanenses, I, Leipzig, Teubner, 1872. 

2 Comparetti, Book of Sindibdd (a translation, by H. C. Coote, of Comparetti's 
Ricerche ittterno al Libro di Sindibdd, Milan, 1869), Folk Lore Society, 1882, IX, 
p. 58 ; Cassel, Mischle Sindbad, pp. 368 f. 

^ First published by Comparetti in his Ricerche, Milan, 1869; later, with an 
English translation, in the English edition of Comparetti's book, Book of Sindibdd, 
pp. 73-164- 

* Edited as follows: by Sengelmann, with a German translation, Halle, 1842; 
by Carmoly, with a French translation, Paris, 1849; ^"^ t)y Cassel, with a Ger- 
man translation and abundant notes, Berlin, 1888. 

5 Pp. xvi f. 

^ Comparetti, Book of Sindibdd, pp. 64 f. ; Cassel, Mischle Sindbad, p. 310. 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

The Persian versions are the poem Sindibad-nameh (1375)^ and the 
prose texts of Nachshebi (about 1300)^ and As-Sarnarquandi (late 
twelfth century).^ Of these by far the most important is the Sindibad- 
nameh, though the other two versions possess more value for the history 
of our story. The version of As-Samarquandi is the source of both the 
other versions. The version of Nachshebi forms the Eighth Night of his 
text of the Tuti-nameh} This version contains but six stories, only five 
of which are to be found in any of the remaining Sindibad collections. 

The surviving Arabic version is that usually known as the Seven 
Vezirs. It is an irregular version which appears with considerable vari- 
ation in several manuscripts of the Arabian Nights, among them a 
Cairo manuscript (printed at Bulaq in 1836, known as the *' Bulaq 
Text "), a Tunis manuscript (ed. Habicht and Fleischer, Breslau, 
1 825-1 843), a Calcutta manuscript (ed. Macnaghten, Calcutta, 1839- 
1842), and a Bengal manuscript (epitomized in part by Jonathan 
Scott, Tales, Anecdotes and Letters, Shrewsbury, 1800).^ Of these the 
text preserved in the Bulaq manuscript appears to be the fullest and 
best.^ The Seven Vezirs was very late in composition, and has had no 
influence upon other versions of the Book of SindibZid. 

Besides the eight Oriental versions that have been preserved, there 
are several other versions that are known to have existed at some time 
in the Christian era, and which we may still somewhat confidently hope 
to see brought to light. Of these the most significant is the Arabic 
version by Musa (probably of the eighth century), which served as the 
immediate source of the Syriac and Old Spanish versions and probably 
also, but with one or more intermediate stages, of all the other Eastern 
versions described above. Other versions to which there are references 

1 As yet not edited. An abstract based on an earlier abstract made by F. Fal- 
coner, Asiatic Journal, 1841, XXXV, pp. 169 f., and XXXVI, pp. 99 f., is given by 
Clouston in his Book of Sindibad, privately printed, 1884, pp. 5-121. 

2 Edited by Brockhaus, Nachshebis Sieben Weisen Meister, Leipzig, 1845; the 
same, translated into Italian by E. Teza, is printed with D'Ancona's edition of 
the Sette Savj, Pisa, 1864, pp. xxxvii f. 

^ See Clouston, AtheuiEwn for September 12, 1891, p. 355. 

* For certain interesting speculations as to the history of this text, see Com- 
paretti, Book of Sindibad, pp. 37 f., and Noldeke, Zeitschr. d. d. morg. Gesellschaft, 
XXXIII, pp. 521 f. 

^ Also epitomized by Clouston, Book of Sindibad, pp. 117 f. 

^ See, for the relationship of these texts, Clouston, table opposite p. 17. 



TRANSMISSION TO WESTERN EUROPE xv 

in Oriental literature are a Kitcib-es-Sindbiid, mentioned by Masudi,^ 
and two earlier Persian poems, — one by Aban Lahiqi (who died 
about 815),'^ the other by AzraqI (who died in 1132).^ 

Tables showing the number and order of stories in the Eastern 
versions are to be found in Comparetti's Book of Sindibad, p. 25 ; 
Landau's Die Quellen des Dekaineron (2d ed., Stuttgart, 1884), table 
opposite p. 340; and B^dier's Les Fabliaux (2d ed., Paris, 1895), 
table opposite p. 136. More or less extensive discussions of the con- 
tent of these stories and their analogues are given by H. A. Keller, 
Li Romans des Sept Sages, Tiibingen, 1836, pp. cxxxi f. ; Keller, Dyocleti- 
aiius Leben, Quedlinburg, 1841, pp. 42 f. ; Cassel, Mischlc Sindbad, 
pp. 82 f. ; and Clouston, Book of Sindibad, pp. 217 f. 

II. TRANSMISSION TO WESTERN EUROPE 

just how The Seven Sages as it appeared in the East in the Book of 
Sindibad became the story as it flourished in Western Europe is a 
question not easy to answer. The problem is rendered a most difficult 
one by the circumstance that the parent Western version has been 
lost. Indeed, our only knowledge of it is such as is wholly inferential 
in nature. The date of this parent Western version, however, cannot 
have been later than 11 50.'' 

As we have seen, there is a wide gap between the Eastern and 
the Western form of the story ; there is in the Western form no 
mention of Sindibad, the sages tell only one story each instead of the 
two (or more) in the East, and just four of the original stories {eanis,^ 
aper, senescakns, and avis) reappear in the Western versions. 

^ In his Aleadows of Gold, Spienger's translation, London, 1841, p. 175. 

2 See Clouston, Book of Sindibad, pp. xxxvi f . 

3 Clouston, p. xl. 

* See p. xxi below. Gaston Paris {Deux Redactions des Sept Sages, Paris, 1876, 
p. i) held that the story penetrated into Western Europe in the twelfth century or 
later; but this opinion can scarcely be reconciled with his placing the date of the 
Latin Dolopathos between 1207 and 121 2 (Romania, II, p. 501), still less with 
his dating the Keller metrical version (K) about 1 1 55 (La Litt. fr. an moyen age, 
2d ed., Paris, 1890, p. 247). 

^ The Latin names first given the stories of the Western group by Goedeke 
{Orient und Occident, 1866, III, p. 423) have obtained general currency in the 
literature on The Seven Sages. 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

Such far-reaching changes establish conclusively that the parent 
Western version was not a translation from any Eastern version. They 
render it extremely improbable, too, that the author of the Western 
parent version had in his hands a version of the story in its Eastern 
form ; indeed, they seem to me to make it extremely probable that 
this author had no sort of first-hand acquaintance with any of the 
Eastern versions. In my judgment, they demonstrate beyond any 
reasonable doubt that the Western parent version grew out of oral 
accounts. 

Which one of the Oriental versions was the ultimate source of these 
oral accounts cannot be known with certainty. Negatively we may say 
that this version cannot have been any of the surviving Persian versions, 
for all of them are too late. For a similar reason it may be asserted 
that it was not the Old Spanish version. Nor can it have been the 
Arabic Seven Vezirs, for, aside from the fact that this version is very 
late, it contains only one of the four stories which reappear in the 
Western type. The source of the traditions culminating in the oldest 
Western version may, then, so far as we know, have been the Greek, 
or the Syriac, or the Hebrew, or the lost Arabic version of Musa, or 
some other lost version of which nothing is known. 

On the theory of probabilities the case would seem to be strongest 
for the Cireek version as the ultimate source of the Western group, 
and Gaston Paris ^ and others have assumed this to be the case. 
But most students of the problem have held that the Hebrew version 
presents the strongest claims for this distinction, and internal evidence 
does seem to support this view. The Hebrew version exhibits several 
minor agreements with the Western form of The Seven Sages which 
it does not share with any of the remaining Oriental versions. 
These features peculiar to the Hebrew Mischle Sindbad and the 
Western typical version are the following : ( i ) the sages are mentioned 
by name ; (2) there is a rivalry between the sages in their efforts to 

1 Paris goes even further: he posits an intermediate Uteiary stage between the 
Eastern and Western versions ; see his LiU. Jr. an iiioyeit age, 2d ed., p. 82 : " L'his- 
toire des Sept Sages . . . traduit en persan, puis en syriaque, en arabe et en grec, 
il re9ut dans I'empire byzantin une forme toute nouvelle, qui s'est perdue, mais 
qui parait avoir passe par I'ltalie et etre la source des diverses versions occiden- 
tales." And he has the support here of Professor F. M. Warren [Primer of French 
Literature, Boston, 1889, p. 35). 



THE CONTINENTAL VERSIONS xvii 

secure, each for himself, the task of instructing the Prince ; (3) the 
sages, not the King's counselors, defend the Prince ; (4) in the story 
ape7; the adventure happens not to an ape but to a man; (5) in the 
story avis, the deception is practiced on the bird through an opening 
in the house-top ; (6) in the same story a maid figures as a party to 
the deception practiced by the wife.^ Just what significance may 
safely be attached to these agreements one must hesitate to say ; they 
may all be accidental ; some of them, as for instance the first, the third, 
and the fourth, are very natural variations.^ At best, they do no more, 
I think, than establish a shght probability in favor of the Hebrew 
version as the Eastern original of the Western group ; and they cer- 
tainly do not in any way discredit the theory of oral transmission of 
the story westward. 

The route of transmission may have been by Byzantium or through 
North Africa and Spain, but was more probably through Syria and the 
Holy Land. The agent of this transmission was very probably a 
Crusader, to whom the Book of Sindibad, with its Buddhistic flavor, 
may be imagined to have made a strong appeal. The time of trans- 
mission cannot have been later than the middle of the twelfth century, 
which, as said above,^ must be made the superior limit for the dating 
of the first Western version. 



III. EUROPEAN VERSIONS OTHER THAN ENGLISH 

The Seven Sages has had in Europe a much larger and more com- 
plicated history than it had in the Orient. There have been preserved, 
as we have seen, at best but eight different versions of the Book of 
Sindibad, whereas there are at least forty different versions of The 
Seven Sages properly so-called, and these, if we are to believe the 
bibliographers, are preserved in upwards of two hundred manuscripts 
and nearly two hundred and fifty editions. 

1 Landau {Quellen des Dekanieron, 2d ed., p. 47) first set forth most of this 
evidence in support of the Mischle Sindbad as the Eastern source of the Western 
group, but he uijured his cause by arguing from the assumption that the fourteenth- 
century Historia Septem Sapientiim (H) is the oldest of the Western versions. 

2 Or may they be traceable to an influence of some early Western version on 
the Hebrew ? 

8 P. XV. 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

That there is a very wide difference between the Eastern and 
the Western type has already been shown. And in explanation of this 
wide difference a basis has been assumed for the Western form of the 
story in oral accounts. Where these oral accounts first took literary 
form has not been, and probably never will be, satisfactorily deter- 
mined — perhaps in Italy, perhaps in France. The earliest Western 
text was doubtless written either in French or in Latin ; but in which, 
also remains, as yet, entirely conjectural. 

The oldest form, apparently, under which the Western type has sur- 
vived is that preserved in the Dolopathos. There can be little doubt, 
however, that the more widely known Sept Sages de Rome, of which 
there survive many manuscripts dating from a period but a little later 
than that of the earliest version of the Dolopathos, preserves more 
nearly the form and contents of the Western parent version.-^ And it 
was under this form that the story acquired its marvelous popularity in 
France, whence it made its way into nearly every other country of 
Europe. 

The Dolopathos. — The Dolopathos exists in two versions, the Latin 
prose text of Joannes de Alta Silva^ and the Old French poem by 
Herbert.^ Of the former there are known, besides the original manu- 
script discovered by Oesterley, three late copies pointed out by Mussafia,* 

1 Students of the relationship of these two types must be on their guard against 
certain errors which for many years pervaded the entire literature on the subject. 
Early scholars, for some unknown reason, assumed and industriously propagated 
the heresy that the late Latin version, the Historia (H), was the source of the 
poetical Dolopathos (and other Western versions), and then, by a necessary infer- 
ence, that the Historia was composed by Joannes de Alta Silva, the real author 
of the Latin Dolopathos. See, for example, Deslongchamps, Essai sur les Fables 
Iiidiennes, Paris, 1838, p. 179. 

2 A manuscript of which was first discovered by Oesterley in 1873, and pub- 
lished by him in the same year: Joantiis de Alta Silva Dolopathos, sive de Rege et 
Septem Sapientibiis, Strassburg. See reviews by Gaston Paris in Romania, II, 
pp. 481 f . ; by Studemund in Zeitschr. f. deutsches Alterthiim, XVII, pp. 415 f., 
and XVIII, pp. 221 f. ; and by Kohler mjahrh.f. rom. u. engl. Lit., XIII, pp. 328 f. 
Several manuscripts pointed out prior to this by Mussafia (for which see below), 
and at first supposed to reproduce faithfully the text of Joannes, were soon 
shown to be corrupt copies made in the fifteenth century. 

3 Edited by Brunet and Montaiglon, Li Roma7ts de Dolopathos, Paris, 1856. 

* Vienna Academy, Sitzungsb., Phil.-hist. CI., XLVIII, pp. 246 f., and LVII, 
PP- 37 f- 



THE CONTINENTAL VERSIONS xix 

an Innsbruck,^ and a British Museum manuscript.- The latter is pre- 
served, so far as is known, in but three manuscripts.'' 

Joannes de Alta Silva, the author of the Latin Dolopathos, was a 
Cistercian monk of the monastery of Haute Seille. His work bears the 
title Dolopathos, sive Opusculiim de Rege et Septem Sapientibiis. It was 
dedicated to Bishop Bertrand of Metz, who had jurisdiction over the 
monastery of Haute Seille from 1184 (when it was transferred from the 
see of Toul to the see of Metz) to 1212 ; and, since Joannes would 
probably dedicate to his own bishop rather than to one at the head of 
another diocese, it has been argued very plausibly that the work was 
written during those years. Oesterley "^ would make the date 1 1 84 or 
at the latest 11 85. Gaston Paris in 1873^ favored a dating between 
1207 and 1 2 12, but in 1890 he placed the date at the end of the 
twelfth century.^ 

The Old French poem of Herbert was made from the Latin prose 
text of Joannes toward the end of the first quarter of the thirteenth 
century: according to Montaiglon,'' between 1223 and 1226; accord- 
ing to Gaston Paris, ^ before 1223. 

The Dolopathos agrees with the Book of Si^idibad in that the Prince 
has only one instructor.^ For this reason it has been conjectured that 
the Dolopathos was founded on some Oriental original, but in my 
judgment the variation is quite natural. Equally valueless for estab- 
lishing a near kinship with the Book of Sindibad is the agreement 
which the Dolopathos shows with the Nachshebl version in the sup- 
pression of the Queen's stories, 

^ Oesterley, Dolopathos, p. viii. 

2 MS. Addl. 18922, fifteenth century; see Ward, Catalogue of Romances, London, 
1893, IL pp. 22Sf. 

3 See Brunet and Montaiglon, Dolopathos, pp. xviii and xxii f., and Gaston Paris, 
Romania, II, p. 503. A leaf of an early fourteenth-century manuscript has been 
lately acquired by the Bibliotheque Nationale — N'oiiv. Acq.fr. 934, No. 6; see 
P. Meyer, Btdletrn de la Societe des anc. Textes fr., 1896, pp. 71 f. See also Haupt, 
Altd. Blatter, I, pp. 1 19 f., for a German translation of a part of the Dolopathos 
preserved in a Leipzig University codex. 

* Dolopathos, p. xi. ^ Romania, II, p. 501. 

^ La Litt.fr. an jnoyen age, 2d ed., p. 109. 

"^ Dolopathos, p. xix. 

^ Romania, II, p. 497. 

9 In the Eastern versions, always Sindibad ; in the Dolopathos, Virgil. 



XX INTRODUCTION 

For the Dolopathos has only one story {canis) in common with the 
Book of Sindibad, while with The Seven Sages of Rome it has no less 
than four stories in common {canis, gaza, pi/teus, and inclusa), only 
one of which {canis), it will be observed, appears also in the Oriental 
versions. This makes it reasonably certain that Joannes was in some 
way acquainted with some version of The Seven Sages of Rome. There 
can be only one alternative supposition, namely, that both the Dolo- 
pathos and The Seven Sages of Rome developed independently of each 
other and almost contemporaneously, the one drawing only one story 
{canis) from the traditions brought from the East, while the other drew 
this story with three others besides {aper, senescalciis, avis), — with the 
additional coincidence that both received, as the result of like influence 
and environment, three stories {gaza, puteus, and inclusa) which were 
not in the Eastern framework. That such was the case is, to say the 
least, extremely improbable. 

But in any case the prose Dolopathos was made not from written 
but from oral sources.' This is expressly stated by Joannes — who says 
he wrote " non ut visa, sed ut audita," — and is borne out by the 
introduction of the Lohengrin story ^ (which takes literary form here 
for the first time), as well as by the striking changes made both in the 
framework and in the stories. 

The Herbert version is very long, comprising nearly 13,000 lines. 
Both in extent and in style it stands in marked contrast with the 
metrical version of the Sept Sages de Rome edited by Keller (K), 
which, with nearly twice as many stories, has only 5060 lines. ^ The 
Dolopathos has an introduction of 4800 lines where K has but 68 
lines. In metrical form the two agree ; both are written in the octo- 
syllabic couplet. 

The King in the Dolopathos bears the name Dolopathos, and rules 
over the island of Sicily. The Prince is called Lucinius ; his mother, 
Auguste. The names of the stepmother and the sages are not given. 
The instruction of the Prince begins, as normally, when he has reached 
the age of seven. He is sent to Rome and put under the care of the 

1 See Todd, La N'aissance dii Chevalier mi Cygne, pp. iii f., in Publications of 
Mod. Lang. Assoc, of A tn erica, 1889, IV; see also Gaston Paris's review of this 
edition in Romania, XIX, pp. 314 f. 

2 See Ehret, Der Ve^fasser des Romans des Sept Sages U7id ILerberz, Heidelberg, 
1886. 



^THE CONTINENTAL VERSIONS xxi 

poet Virgil, whose figure is supreme throughout the story and gives to 
it one of its strctagest claims upon our interest. The sages, who are, 
because of Virgil's prominence, placed somewhat in the background, 
come up as in the remaining Western versions, one each day, always 
just in time to save the Prince's life. The Prince relates no story at 
all, Virgil telling the eighth (and last) story.^ 

The order of stories in the Dolopathos is canis, gaza, senes, creditor, 
vidiiae filius, latronis filius, cygni eques, inclusa -\- piiteiis. 

The Seven Sages of Rome. — The Seven Sages of Rome, unlike the 
Dolopathos, includes a very large number of versions. Here belong, 
besides all English versions (the Middle English poems, the text printed 
by Wynkyn de Worde with its prose derivatives, and the Rolland version), 
all the French and Latin versions save the Dolopathos, the numerous 
versions in Italian, German, and Dutch, together with many manu- 
scripts and editions, representing more or less independent traditions, 
in Spanish, Scandinavian, Celtic, Russian, Pohsh, Bohemian, and Bul- 
garian. The Seven Sages, then, is to be found either in manuscript or 
in print, or in both, in nearly every language of Europe. Nor has its 
vogue been confined entirely to Europe, for it has been published at 
least twice in America."^ 

The ultimate Western source whence all these sprang has not come 
down to us. The date, too, of this parent version is not known, but in 
view of its influence on the Dolopathos and the Marques de Rome (a 
sequel to The Seven Sages, written early in the thirteenth century), as 
also in the light of the comparatively large number of manuscripts in 
prose dating from the first half of the thirteenth century, it must be 
placed as early as 1150,^ and it may fall in a time considerably earlier. 
The oldest versions preserved are in French. 

The normal number of stories in The Seven Sages of Rome proper is 
fifteen ^ ; of which the Queen relates seven, and the seven sages tell one 

1 See in this connection Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages, translated by 
Benecke, London, 1895, PP- -34 ^• 

2 In chapbook form at Boston in 1794 {The Famous History of the Seven Wise 
Masters of Rome), and in Lithuanian {Istorija Septyniii Mokintojit) at Plymouth, 
Pennsylvania, in 1892. 

3 Certainly so if Gaston Paris's dating of the Keller text, "about 1155," is to 
be accepted; see the discussion of K. 

* See the comparative table of stories at the end of this section. 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

each, the Prince closing with the fifteenth. The scene of action is 
prevailingly Rome, though with two versions — K and D* — it is Con- 
stantinople. The Emperor's name is, in most versions, Diocletian ; 
variants are Vespasian, Marcomeris, and Pontianus.^ The Prince is not 
named in the earliest versions, but in later versions he appears variously 
as Florentine, Diocletian, Stefano, and Erasto.^ The sages are named 
Bancillas, Ancilles or Anxilles, Lentulus, Malquidras or Malquidrac, 
Cato, Jesse, and Maxencius or Merous.^ 

The interrelation of the various forms under which The Seven Sages 
appears has been the subject of almost continuous investigation for 
more than half a century. The first serious attempt at an orderly 
classification was made by Goedeke in 1866.* Goedeke was followed 
two years later by Mussafia,^ in a study which possesses much merit 
and which contributed not a little toward clearing the way for subse- 
quent investigation. But it is to Gaston Paris above all that credit is 
due for bringing order out of chaos. The " Preface " to his Deux 
Redactions ^ contains the most significant contribution to the study of 
The Seven Sages that has yet been made. It need hardly be added 
that the excellence of his work has been recognized on all sides, and 
that his conclusions have, with one or two exceptions at most, been 
universally adopted. 

Paris classifies under eight different heads, as follows "^ : 

1. S, the Scala C<?// abridgment, in Latin.* 

2. H, the immense group of which the Latin Historia Septem 
Sapientum is the type. 

3. K, the Old French poem published by Keller. 

4. I, the " Versio Italica." 

5. M, the anomalous version known as the Male Marrastre. 

1 See K, D*, and H, respectively. 

2 See the Middle English versions, H, I, and Erasto. 

3 There are numerous more or less radical variations in the spelling of these 
names ; and there are with a few of the later versions (see the names in H and I) 
some substitutions. * Orietit tind Occident, III, pp. 402 f. 

s Vienna Academy, Sitzimgsb., Phil.-hist. CL, LVII, pp. 37 f. 
^ Soc. des anc. Textes fr. for 1876. 

' A classification made on the basis of the Latin, French, and Italian versions 
only, but which answers quite as well for all other European versions. 

8 See, for bibliographical data, the discussion of these types given below. 



THE CONTINENTAL VERSIONS xxiii 

6. D*,^ the ''Version Derimde," the first of the Deux Redac- 
tions edited by Gaston Paris. 

7. L, the group of French manuscripts of which the first Leroux 
de Lincy text is the type. 

8. A*,^ the large group typified by the Itahan prose text pub- 
lished by A. d'Ancona. 

I. S comprises only one version, found in manuscript in the Scala 
Cell (a compilation of the early fourteenth century made by Joannes 
Junior [or Parvus]^) and in a Vienna codex entitled Sinnma Recreato7-um 
(fifteenth century).^ Both manuscripts are in Latin prose. The text 
of the Scala Cell was published at Liibeck in 1476, at Ulm in 1480, 
at Strassburg in 1483, at Louvain in 1485, and at Seville in 1496 ; and 
was reprinted by Goedeke in 1866.* It is also to be found in a Spanish 
translation made by Diego de Cailizares in the fifteenth century. An 
edition of this text from a Madrid manuscript has been recently made 
by A. Paz y Mdia (Madrid, 1892). 

S is an abridgment of a lost Liber de Septem Sapientibus. Its most 
salient peculiarity is its brevity. This results from an industrious prun- 
ing of unessential details, especially in the transitions from story to 
story. The stories themselves are much compressed, but are not sub- 
stantially altered. The names of the sages and the Prince are omitted, 
but the name of the Emperor — Diocletian — remains. 

Another significant feature of S is the substitution of the stories 7?//^! 
and noverca for Roma and inclusa, a feature which appears elsewhere 
only in L.^ 

As to the date of the lost Liber de Septem Sapientibus upon which S 
was based, nothing is known with certainty, but it must be not later 
than the middle of the thirteenth century.*' As to its source,' similar 

1 D* and A* are starred in order to prevent confusion with the Middle English 
manuscripts D and A. 

2 See Crane, Exe77tpla of Jacques de Vitry, London, 1890, pp. Ixxxvi f. 

3 Pointed out by Mussafia, and described by him, in Vienna Academy, Sitzungsb., 
Phil.-hist. CI., LVII, pp. 83 f. It differs slightly from the Goedeke text. 

* Orient tind Occident, III, pp. 402-421. 

5 See, for the order of stories in S and in other versions, the table at the end 
of this section. 

6 If we are to believe Gaston Paris's theory of a basis in L, it must be dated 
considerably earlier than this. 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

uncertainty prevails. Its nearest relationship is with L, with which it 
shares, as just noted, the filia-?ioverca feature. But it is not probable 
that S was based on L ; the more probable view is that L was influenced 
by S. 

2. H. The prevailing type of this group is the Latin prose Histojia 
Septem Sapientuni Romae, for a long time supposed to be the source 
of all other versions of The Seven Sages of Rome. Variants of the 
Historia type are the Historia Ca/umniae Novercalis and Pontiamis : 
Dicta aiit Facta Septan Sapientum. 

The oldest manuscripts of the Histo7-ia proper are in Latin prose. 
From the Latin, H has been translated into English, French, Spanish, 
German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Armenian, and several of 
the Slavonic languages. 

Of Latin manuscripts of the Historia no less than twenty-eight have 
been pointed out ^ ; and at least thirteen fifteenth-century editions of 
the Latin text have been preserved." The oldest text in manuscript is 
that found in an Innsbruck codex dating from the year 1342. This 
was published by G. Buchner in 1889.^ The Historia, more or less 
altered, is also to be found in a great many manuscripts of the Gesta 
Romanorum. Oesterley * describes at least thirty-five manuscripts in 
which all or a part of The Seven Sages appears. The oldest edition of 
the Historia appears to be that published at Cologne in 1475 by Johann 
Veldener. dcc,tLMu'\kQ f^'^'^iic/ dj ^^■^i^ > i ^^t^i^i /r73 VSt'o.^v^, W)e4u.i jI. 

It was probably from the Latin Historia that the English translation ^'«*' 
printed by Wynkyn de Worde was made. And it was from the Wynkyn ' ^ 
de Worde edition that the metrical version by Rolland, the Copland' 'J 
edition, and the various later English versions were derived. k n. 

Of the French translation of the Historia at least eight early editions 
have survived. The oldest of them, printed at Geneva in 1492, was . ' 
reprinted by Gaston Paris in 1876.^ 

1 See H. Fischer, Beitrdge zur Litteratur der Sieben weiseii Meister, Greifswald, 
1902, pp. 5f. ; and G. Buchner, Herrig's Archiv, 1904, CXIII, pp. 297 f. 

2 See G. Buchner, Erlaftger Beitrdge, 1889, V, pp. 3 f . ; A. J. Botermans, Die 
hystorie van die seven wijse inatinen van rotnen, Haarlem, 1898, pp. 31 f.; and 
Buchner, Herrig's Archiv, 1904, CXHI, p. 301. 

^ Erlanger Beitrdge, V, pp. 7-90. 

* Gesta Romanornm, Berlin, 1872, pp. 14, 22, 27, 36, 45, 51, 55, 66, 81, 85, 89, 94, 
100, loi, III, 112, 119, 120, 121, 130, 132, 134, 144, 146 (two manuscripts), 147, 
162, 168, 174, 175, 181, 182, 185, 189, 194. s Deux Redactions, pp. 55-205. 



THE CONTINENTAL VERSIONS XXV 

In Spain the Historia has never secured a very firm foothold ; though 
a Spanish translation, printed at Burgos in 1530, has passed through six 
editions.^ 

In Germany, however, the Historia has been even more popular 
than in France ; indeed, H seems to have been the only version which 
found acceptance in Germany. J. Schmitz, in his dissertation, Die 
altesten Fassungcn des deiitschen Romans von den sieben weisen Meis- 
tern, Greifswald, 1904, pp. i f., describes twelve manuscripts of the 
German translation of H; and H. Fischer, in his dissertation, Bcitrage 
zur Litteratitr der sieben weisen Meister, pp. i f., tells of seventy-two 
different editions of this translation. Moreover, there are in German 
several metrical versions derived from H : that of Hans von Biihel, 
entitled Dyocletianiis Leben^^ the date of which — 141 2 — is, happily, 
incorporated into the text (II. 9479-9480) ; an anonymous poem ^ prob- 
ably later than,* and influenced by, the Hans von Biihel version ; and 
a tragedy written in 1560 by Sebastian Wildt. — In the German group 
also belongs the Latin Ludiis Septem Sapientum, a much botched 
translation of the German prose text, printed by Paulus Reffeler at 
Frankfurt about 1560. 

The Dutch translation of the Historia is preserved in some fifteen 
or more editions,^ the oldest of which appeared in 1479. 

The Danish translation has been printed at least four times,^ the 
oldest edition, according to Nyerup, being that of 1673. 

In Swedish the Historia has appeared in two different versions : one 
an abridgment found in a Copenhagen manuscript of the fifteenth 
century, published in 1 888-1 889 by G. E. Klemming'^; the other a 
very full version published by P. O. Backstrom in 1845.^ 

1 See A. Paz y Melia, Libro de los Siete Sabios, Madrid, 1892, p. vi. 

2 Edited by H. A. Keller, Dyocletianiis Lebeii, Quedlinburg and Leipzig, 1841. 
See, for a study of Hans von Biihel, F. Seelig, Der classische DicJiter Ha7is von 
Biihel, Strassburg, 1887. 

3 Edited by Keller, Altdetitsche Gedichte, Tubingen, 1846, pp. 15 f. For a study 
of this poem, see P. Paschke, Uber das anonyme nihd. Gedicht von den Sieben 
Weisen Meistern, Breslau, 1891. 

* So Paschke (p. 44), who sets its date at 1476 ; but Schmitz (p. 120) holds that 
it is more than a hundred years older. 

^ See the dissertation of Botermans, pp. 36 f. and 69 f. 

'' See R. Nyerup, Alinindelig Morskabsldsnfiing, Copenhagen, 181 6, p. 152. 

■^ Samlingar af Svetiska Fornskrift-Sdllskapet, XCVI, pp. 221-240, and XCVII, 
pp. 241-245. 8 Svenska Folksbdcker, Stockholm, I, pp. 8-75. 



xxvi INTRODUCTION 

An Icelandic version in manuscript, mentioned by Nyerup (p. 152), 
has apparently not been published, 

H in the Slavonic languages has been the subject of two interesting 
articles by Murko.^ According to Murko the Historia has been trans- 
lated into Bohemian, into Polish, and into Russian, and, in its variant 
form Fontianus, also into Hungarian. The Bohemian translation is 
preserved in a manuscript of the second half of the fourteenth century, 
and also in seven editions.^ A derivate from the Bohemian translation 
is a Bohemian comedy made in 1558.' The PoHsh translation has 
passed through eight editions.^ Of the Russian translation there are, 
according to Murko, forty manuscripts belonging to the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries.^ These all go back to the Polish version.® 
A modern Russian edition, printed at Moscow in 1847, is a translation 
from the Armenian.'^ 

The Armenian version is found in an Ispahan manuscript of 1687, 
of which three editions have been made (in 1696, 1720, and 1740).*^ 

The Fontianus and the Historia Calumniae Novercalis, the two 
Latin prose derivates from the Historia, differ but slightly from the 
Historia proper. The variations exhibited by the former are only 
textual apparently, and are insignificant. The latter differs from the 
Historia mainly in the suppression of all Christian features and in 
the occasional substitution of new names for those usually found. The 
Fontianus is preserved in two editions (Strassburg, 15 12, and Vienna, 
1826), and in a Hungarian translation printed at Vienna in 1573 and 
later edited by H. Gusztav (Budapest, 1898). Of the Calumnia there 
have been three editions, all printed at Antwerp (1489, 1490, 1496). 

The chief distinguishing features of H, aside from its peculiar order 
of stories, are the introduction of amatores and atnici (the latter 
appended to vaticinium), the fusing of senescalcus and Roma, and the 
unique fullness of detail. The extravagant fondness of H for pointing 
the moral also calls for mention.^ 

1 In Vienna Academy, Sitziingsb., Phil. -hist. CI., 1890, CXII, Ah/iandhaigx,ax\di. 
Zeitschr.f. vergl. Litter atii7-gesch., 1892, N.F., V, pp. 1-34. 

2 Murko, Vienna Academy, pp. 12 f. and 27 f. 

3 P. 27. *Pp. yof. 5 p. 88. 6 P. 103. 7 P. 92. 

8 See P. Lerch, Orient tmd Occident, II, pp. 369 f., and Murko, Zeitschr.f. vergl. 
Litter atttrgesc/i., N.F., V, p. 27. 

9 For still other features peculiar to H, see G. Paris, Detix Redactions, pp. xxxiv f . 



THE CONTINENTAL VERSIONS xxvii 

The Emperor in H is called Poncianus rather than Diocletianus, under 
the influence perhaps, as Paris has suggested/ of the Gcsta Romanorum ; 
for the author of H apparently wished to begin with the same formula 
as that so common in the Gesta, but found there already a story begin- 
ning " Dioclecianus regnavit," ^ and accordingly substituted Poncianus 
for Dioclecianus. H also makes some changes in the names of the 
sages, displaying a preference for the spelling Craton for Cato, and 
substituting Josephus, Cleophas, and Joachim for Jesse, Ancilles, and 
Maxencius. 

The date of composition of H, traditionally assumed to be very 
early, G. Paris showed ^ to be the first half of the fourteenth century — 
probably about 1330. Its source Paris proved* to be some manuscript 
belonging to A*. 

3. K, the Old French metrical version published by Keller,^ is per- 
haps the most precious of all French versions of The Seven Sages 
proper. It has come down to us in only one manuscript (Bib. Nat. fr. 
1553), which was written in the late thirteenth century. But the 
actual composition of the poem must date from a period considerably 
earlier — according to Gaston Paris ^ about 1155. 

The King in K is Vespasian, who is represented as being the son of 
Methusaleh. The first wife of Vespasian is a daughter of the Duke of 
Carthage. The name of the Prince is not given. Soon after the death 
of the first Queen the scene of the story is changed to Constantinople. 
But it is not long before the Prince returns to Rome, where he is 
instructed by the sages, as in other versions. 

K has the same stories as D* and A*, but in a different order. The 
agreement, both in order of stories and in contents, is, as a rule, 
closest with D*. In the stories vidua, Ro7na, inclusa, and vaticinium, 
however, K exhibits a very close, at times even verbal, agreement also 
with A*. Gaston Paris accounted for this by assuming for A* and K a 
common source (likewise the source of D*), which he designated as V.'^ 

Another Old French metrical version, closely related to K, is to be 
found in a late thirteenth-century manuscript belonging to the Library 

1 P. xxxix, note i. 2 ggg Oesterley, Gesta Romanorum, p. 426. 

^ Deux Redactions, p. xxxix. * Pp. xxxi f. 

5 Li Romans des Sept Sages, Tubingen, 1836. 
® Litt.fr. an moyen dge, 2d ed., p. 247. 
"^ See his Deux Redactions, pp. xviii f. 



xxviii INTRODUCTION 

of Chartres.^ The text of this version is incomplete, beginning with the 
end of tentamina. The order of stories from this point on — Rotna, 
avis, sapientes, vidua, Virgillus, inclusa, vaticinium — is unique, but is 
nearest to that of K. Apparently its textual variations from K, though 
numerous, are not of any very great significance. 

4. I. The " Versio Italica " was first so styled by Mussafia in his study 
of the Italian recensions of The Seven Sages!'- This group comprises 
six different versions: (i) // Libro dei Sette Savi (preserved in a 
Modena manuscript of the fourteenth century; published by Cappelli, 
in Scelta di Curiositd Litterarie, Bologna, 1865, LXIV) ; (2) Storia 
d'una Criidele Matrigna (fifteenth century ; published by G. Delia 
Lucia, Venice, 1832; by Romagnoli, Scelta, etc., 1862, XIV; and by 
Roediger, Firenze, 1883); (3) Storia di Stefano, a fifteenth-century 
poem in ottava rima (about 6000 lines ; described by Pio Rajna in 
Romania, VII, pp. 22 f., 369 f., and X, pp. i f., and published by him in 
Scelta, eic, 1880, CLXXVI); (4) a Latin "Versio Italica" (preserved 
in a Vienna, a Lemberg, a Munich,^ and a British Museum * manuscript, 
all of the fifteenth century ; published by Mussafia, Vienna Academy, 
Sitzungsb., Phil.-hist. CI., 1868, LVII, pp. 94-118); (5) D Amabile di 
Co7itinentia (fifteenth century; edited by Cesari, Bologna, 1896) ; and 
(6) a very popular late version entitled Erasto (variously translated 
and published, as explained below). 

This group is held together by the very peculiar order of its stories : 
the sages in I lead off with the story-telling, the first sage's story, canis, 
taking first place in the list, the Queen's first story, arbor, taking second 
place; and so on through to the end. A happy consequence of this 
reversal of order is the crowding out of the story senescalcus. 

I falls into two subgroups : one comprising the first four versions in 
the list given above ; the other the last two — the Amabile and the 
Erasto. 

A peculiar feature of the first subgroup ^ is the naming the Prince 
Stefano. The Emperor and the Empress are not mentioned here by 

^ See P. Meyer, Bidletin de la Soc. des anc. Textes fr. for 1894, p. 41. 
^ Jahrb.f. rotn. n. engl. Litt., 1862, IV, pp. 166 f. 

3 See Fischer, Beitr. ztir Litt. der Sieben tveisen Aleister, pp. 6 and 122 f. 
* See Ward, Catalogue of Iio?na7ices, II, p. 206. 

5 With the exception of the Latin version (4), which, like S, shows a tendency 
to suppress all names. 



THE CONTINENTAL VERSIONS xxix 

name, and so likewise with the sages except in the metrical version (3), 
where they are known as Eleuzies, Ansiles, Lentulis, Machiladas, Cha- 
tone, Epsse, and Charaus. The first two versions of this group — those 
edited by Cappelli and by Delia Lucia and Roediger — do not differ 
substantially from each other. The Latin version (4) was probably 
based on some Italian version belonging to the group, but is not a 
close translation of any one of them. Its author must have been an 
Italian.^ The poetical version (3) is the most independent of the four 
versions comprised in the first subgroup. 

The Amabile and the Erasto, which compose the second subgroup, 
are in contents very similar. In both the Prince is called Erasto, and 
the wicked Queen, Aphrodisia. The sages are known as Euprosigorus, 
Dimurgus, Thermus, Enoscopus, Philantropus, Agathus, and Leucus 
(with variants). Both agree in making many additions to the original, 
the chief of which is the inserting of several new stories just before 
the last story, vaticinium. 

But the Amabile has not enjoyed the popularity accorded the Erasto. 
The Amabile survives in only one manuscript (that edited by Cesari, 
as above), while the Erasto has had a vogue second only to that of H 
and A*. In Italian it has passed through at least thirty-five editions ^ 
(one of them a poem by Maria Teluccini, Pesaro, 1566), and it has 
also been translated into French, Spanish, and English. The first 
French edition recorded is that printed at Lyons in 1564. Cesari 
(p. cxxi) catalogues nine other editions in French. There appears to 
have been but one edition of the Spanish translation (Amberes, 1573). 
The English translation was made from some French text by Francis 
Kirkman {The History of Prince Erastus, London, 1674; also London, 
1684). 

The parent version of I was probably not earlier than the fourteenth 
century. The source of this parent version must have been some manu- 
script of A*.^ 

5. M, the Male [or Eaussc^ Marrastre, is even more anomalous 
than is the " Versio Italica." The Prince in M is called Phiseus, 
and Marcus, son of the sage Cato, figures prominently ; but what 

1 See Mussafia, Vienna Academy, Sitzungsb., LVII, p. 93. 

2 Cesari, Amabile, pp. cxxi f., enumerates thirty-eight editions, all except three 
of which belong either to the sixteenth or to the seventeenth century. 

^ Cesari, pp. cxxxiv £., and Rajna, Romania, VII, pp. 369 f. 



XXX INTRODUCTION 

distinguishes M sharply from other versions is its substitution of six 
new stories (designated by Gaston Paris, I.e., p. xxv, 2.^filius, nutrix, 
Aiitcnor, spurius, Cardamutn, and assassinus) for puteus, senescalciis, 
tentamina, Virgilius, sapientes, and Roma. The source of M Paris 
believed to be some much mutilated text of A*.^ The new stories, 
which are distinctly inferior to those they displace, were probably, 
with one exception, the invention of the author. Only three complete 
manuscripts and a fragment (Berne 41) of M are known, all of which 
belong either to the fourteenth or to the fifteenth century. There is 
as yet no edition of M. 

With M are to be associated the numerous sequels or continuations 
of The Seven Sages, of which the most important is the Maj-ques de 
Rome.^ This type originated in Picardy, probably in the first half of 
the thirteenth century. Johann Alton, who has edited the Marqiies^ 
from a manuscript of the Library of Arras (written down by Jehan 
Damien in 1278), describes ten Old French manuscripts, and Leroux 
de Lincy mentions two others.'* None of the stories in the Marques 
are the same as those in The Seven Sages, but some of them (as for 
instance the fifth, which resembles medicus^) are obviously modeled 
after them. The Marques doubtless grew out of A*, — according to 
Alton, with M as an intervening stage, but Gaston Paris held that M 
was later than the Marques and the rest of the sequels.^ The Marques 
has, fortunately, not crossed the borders of France. 

6. D*. The "Version D^rimee," a unique French prose manuscript 
published by Paris as the first of his Deux Redactions (pp. 1—55), is 
thus called because of the numerous instances of rhyme still discernible 
in the text, and which establish for it a metrical original.'^ Some of 
these rhyming passages fall in with K, but not all of them. Moreover, 
the order of stories in D* differs from that of K. Accordingly D* can- 
not have been based on K, but the two doubtless go back to a common 
source, now lost, which Paris designated as V.'' 

1 For Paris's exposition of the pedigree of M, together with a fuller description 
of that version, see his Deux Redactions, pp. xxiii f. 

2 Others are the Fiseus (or Laurin), Cassiodoriis, Pelearmemis, and Kanor. 

3 Li Romans de Marques de Rome, Tiibingen, 1889. 

* Roman des Sept Sages (with L. Deslongchamps's Essai siir les Fables Indiennes'), 
Paris, 1838, p. xliv. ^ See Alton, p. 172. ^ ggg Romania, XIX, p. 493. 

^ See, for the peculiarities of D* and its relationship to other versions, Paris, 
I.e., pp. V f. 



THE CONTINENTAL VERSIONS xxxi 

D* styles the King Marcomeris, son of Priam, and makes the Prince's 
mother the daughter of the King of Carthage, as with K. As with K, 
also, D* lays the scene of the story at Constantinople. It abridges at 
the beginning, but later elaborates freely. Two independent additions 
at the end are the attempts of the Queen to escape punishment : one 
by means of a judicial combat, which is fought between the Prince and 
her nephew, Frohart ; the other by asking of the Emperor, as a last 
favor, a toise (that is, something which may be encircled by the arms) 
to be burned with her, which being granted, she demands the Emperor 
himself. Both of the attempts are frustrated by the Prince. 

7. L comprises all manuscripts of the type of the first Leroux de 
Lincy text (RoJtian des Sept Sages, pp. 1-76). At least seven Old 
French manuscripts preserving the L tradition either wholly or in part 
are known to survive,^ and there is also a metrical version in Catalan 
(3424 octosyllabic lines rhyming) in a fourteenth-century manuscript 
belonging to the Library of Carpentras. An edition of the latter, by 
Mussafia, appeared in 1876 (Vienna Academy, Denkschriften, XXV, 

pp. 151 f.)- 

The most distinctive characteristics of L are its employment of the 
stories filia and noverca, and the omission of the stories vidua and 
vaticinium. In the employment of the filia-noverca feature L clearly 
betrays the influence of S, which, except for the reversal of order of 
puteus and tentamina, it tracks closely also for the remaining eleven 
stories. For these eleven stories, however, L shows a much closer 
agreement with A* ; indeed, for these stories L is textually all but one 
with A*. Still, Gaston Paris believed A* to be later than L, and he 
was, in consequence, driven to the view that L was based on some 
manuscript of S. To explain the difference between L and S after the 
eleventh story, Paris conjectured that the author of L used a manu- 
script of S which was mutilated toward the end, and that he was obliged, 
accordingly, to draw on his memory for the concluding stories." There 
are reasons, however, for discrediting in part Paris's conclusions here, 
as will be shown below in the discussion of A*. 

1 These are MSS. Bib. Nat. fr. 189, 1444, 19166, 22933, 24431, Bib. Nat. Moreau 
1720, Ars. B. L. fr. 245, and Chaitres 620. P. Meyer, in Bulletin de la Soc. des anc. 
Textes fr. for 1894, pp. 39 f., mentions three other manuscripts which he by impli- 
cation groups with L, but his report is not expUcit. 

2 Paris, Deux Redactions, pp. xi f. 



xxxii INTRODUCTION 

8. A* is for English, French, and ItaUan, if not, in fact, for the 
entire Western group of The Seven Sages, the most important of all 
groups. In English it includes all nine of the Middle English manu- 
scripts that have been brought to light ; and in French, no less than 
twenty-one Old French manuscripts.^ To it also belong three different 
early Italian versions, two early Swedish versions, a Dutch metrical 
version, and the Welsh version. And ultimately based on A*, as has 
been shown, are all manuscripts of I, H, M, and Mai-ques. 

The nine Middle English manuscripts of A* represent not more 
than two different versions. These will be discussed at length in the 
next division of this Introduction.^ 

The Old French manuscripts are all in prose, and apparently repre- 
sent only one version. Four of these manuscripts (Brussels 9245, 
Ars. B. L. fr. 283, Bib. Nat. fr. 95, and Cambridge Gg. VI. 28) show a 
contamination with L.^ A part of MS. Bib. Nat. fr. 2137 was pub- 
lished by Leroux de Lincy in 1838 in the appendices to his Roman 
des Sept Sages, pp. 79-103,* and an edition of MS. Bib. Nat. fr. 95 has 
recently been published by Plomp.^ 

The Italian versions belonging to A* are the Libra dei Sette Savj, 
published by A. d'Ancona (Pisa, 1864, pp. 1-94) and preserved in two 
manuscripts of the fifteenth century; o. Storia favolosa di Stefano, pre- 
served in a Padua manuscript ; ® and the prose version published by 
H. Varnhagen from the early fourteenth-century British Museum MS. 

1 These are MSS. Bib. Nat. fr. 93, 95, 1421, 2137, 5586, 20040, 22548, 25545, 
Bib. Nat. Nouv. Acq. fr. 1263, Bib. Nat. Moreau 1691, Ars. B. L. fr. 246, 283, 
Brussels 9245, 9433, 10171, 11 190, Cambridge Gg. I. i, Gg. VI. 28, Harl. 3860, 
St. John Baptist College (Oxford) 102, and Berne 354. For a description of most 
of these, see H. P. B. Plomp, De Middelnederlandsche Bewerking van het gedicht 
van den vii Vroeden van binnen Rome, Utrecht, 1899, PP- '8^- 

2 Pp. XXV f. 

3 The story iioz^erca has been appended to the first of these. In the second the 
same change has been made, and in addition Roma has been supplanted hy Ji/ia. 
The last two of the four manuscripts contain seventeen stories each,yf//a appear- 
ing as the thirteenth story and noi<erca as the seventeenth. See Plomp, pp. 32 f. 
See Plomp also, p. 31, concerning a slight contamination withH detectable in MS. 
Bib. Nat. fr. 5586. 

* The variants of the rest from MS. Bib. Nat. fr. 19166 are given in footnotes 
to his edition of the latter manuscript, pp. 1-76. 

5 In an appendix to his dissertation, De Middehiederla7idsche Bewerking, etc., 
Utrecht, 1899. ^ Described by Cesari, Amabile di Continentia, pp. Iviii f. 



THE CONTINENTAL VERSIONS xxxiii 

Addl. 27429.^ The last two of these agree in substituting iox puteus a 
story named by Varnhagen mercator. The Storia favolosa, in calling 
the prince Stefano, betrays the influence of I. All these Italian versions 
are in prose. 

In prose also are the two Swedish versions, one preserved in a four- 
teenth-century manuscript, the other in a fifteenth-century manuscript.^ 

The Dutch version is in verse, and comprises 4514 lines. It is found 
in a Brussels manuscript of the fourteenth century. There is an edition 
of it by K. Stallaert (Gent, 1889). 

The Welsh version, Seith Doethon Riivein, a prose redaction, much 
condensed, purports to have been written by a Welsh priest, Llewelyn. 
It appears in the famous Llyfr Coch Hergist (Jesus College, Oxford), 
a manuscript of the fourteenth century, and in four other manuscripts 
of later execution: Jesus College MS. 3, Peniarth MS. 180, Cardiff 
MS. 5, and Cardiff MS. 6.^ An edition based on the Peniarth manu- 
script, which is a late copy of Jesus College MS. 3, was published by 
R. Williams in Selections from the Hengwrt MSS., London, 1880, 
pp. 301-324. An English translation, by G. H. Jones, is printed in 
the continuation of this volume, London, 1892, pp. 647-662.* 

1 Eiiie Italieftische P7-osaversion der Siebeii Weiseii, Berlin, 1S81. 

2 Both of these were published at Stockholm in 1888 by G. E. Klemming, Sjtc 
vise mdstare, Samlingar af Svenska Foriiskrift-Sdllskapet, XCVI, pp. 1 13-172 
(Version A) and pp. 175-218 (Version B). 

3 On the manuscripts see J. Gwenogvryn Evans, Report on Alanuscripts in the 
Welsh Language, Historical MSS. Commission, 1902, pp. 3, 4, t^^i 34) loi- 

* The order of stories in the Welsh version is as follows : (i) arbor, (2) ca7iis, 
(3) aper, (4) medicus, {^)gaza, {6)pitteits, (7) ramus [see note on 11. 1689 f-]' (8) Roma- 
lupus [see note on 11. 3063 f.], (9) Virgiliiis, (10) vidua, (11) sapientes, (12) inclusa, 
(13) senescalcus, (14) tejita>nina, (15) vaticinium, — az'w being omitted. This order 
finds nothing closely parallel to it elsewhere. It is nearest, however, to the order 
of A*, with which it agrees for the first six stories, the ninth, the eleventh, and 
the fifteenth. And a comparison of motif quite confirms this presumption in 
favor of a basis for the Welsh version in A*. The Middle English form of A*, 
however, was not used, as is shown by two particulars in tentamina in which the 
Welsh agrees with the Old French as against the Middle English : (a) it is at the 
end of the first year of married life that the wife complains to her mother, and 
(b) the wife, on leaving the table on the occasion of the last test, " went to fetch 
a knife for her lord." The names of the sages in the Welsh version are Bantillas, 
Augustus, Lentillus, Malquidas, Catonias, Jesse, and Martinus. The Emperor is 
called Diocletian, and his first wife Eva ; the names of the second wife and the 
Prince are not given. 



xxxiv INTRODUCTION 

The Emperor in A* is called Diocletian. The Prince is not named 
in the Old French and the Dutch versions, but in the English versions ^ 
he is called Florentine, and in one of the Italian versions (under the 
influence of I) Stefano. As to the name of the cruel stepmother all 
versions are silent, but the Prince's mother is called in the Middle 
English versions either Milicent or Helie. The sages are known (as 
with K, D*, and L) as Bancillas, Anxilles, Lentilioune, Malquidas, 
Caton, Jesse, and Maxencious,^ with many variations in spelling. The 
order of stories in A* is (i) ardor, (2) cants, (3) aper, (4) medicus, 
(5) g(iza, (6) puteiis, (7) senescalcus, (8) tentamina, (9) Virgilius, 
(10) avis, (11) sapientes, (12) vidua, (13) Roma, (14) inclusa,{\^~) 
vaticinium. This order is, for the first eleven stories, the same as that 
of L, with which, as noted above. A* is for this part textually almost 
identical. The order of A* is also very near that of S ; but A* preserves 
a different tradition from that of both L and S in that it does not con- 
tain the stories filia and noverca. In the omission of these it falls" 
rather with K and D*, but at the same time it differs from them con- 
siderably in the order of stories. 

The most ancient texts of A* are in Old French. At least nine Old 
French manuscripts belonging to the thirteenth century are known.^ 
Besides, the Marques de Rome, which itself belongs to the first half of 
the thirteenth century, was, as pointed out above, inspired by A* ; 
so that the composition of A* can pretty safely be placed in the 
twelfth century. 

The source of A* Gaston Paris * believed to be L and V (the hypo- 
thetical Old French metrical version), the text to the end of the 
eleventh story being taken from L, and the rest drawn from V. This 
view so far as it concerns V is probably correct, but there are grounds 
for discrediting the theory so far as it concerns L. The chief of these 
is that L is obviously composite in nature, preserving in its two parts 
two comparatively distinct lines of tradition ; ^ it is, besides, imperfect 

1 Except As, in which both the Emperor and the Prince are known as Diocletian. 

2 The spelling here is that of MS. Cotton Galba E. ix (C), which furnishes the 
text edited in this volume. 

3 The fullest information as to the date of the Old French manuscripts is that 
given by Leroux de Lincy, I.e., pp. vii f. * Deux Redactions., pp. xviii f. 

^ Moreover, it has not been shown that S, upon which Paris assumed L to have 
been based, was older than A*. Indeed, Goedeke {Orient und Occident, III, p. 397) 
ventured no earlier dating for S than the first half of the thirteenth century. 



THE ENGLISH VERSIONS 



XXXV 



in one of these parts, and is quite illogical in its conclusion. Other 
grounds are the early vogue of A* (not only in French, but also in 
English, Dutch, Welsh, and even in Scandinavian) and its closer kinship 
with K. Much more plausible, then, than the theory that A* was for 
its first eleven stories drawn from L is the theory that L for these 
stories was drawn from A*. Assuming this to be the case, we may 
find the source of A* in some lost metrical version, perhaps the source 
of K and D*, and possibly the parent version of the entire Western 
group of The Seven Sages. 

TABLE OF STORIES IN THE SEVEN SAGES OF ROME'^ 





A* 


L 


s 


K 


D* 


H 


I 


M 


(l) 


arbor 


arbor 


arbor 


arbor 


arbor 


arbor 





arbor 


(2) 


cants 


can is 


canis 


canis 


canis 


canis 


cat lis 


ca?tis 


(3) 


aper 


aper 


aper 


senesc. 


setiesc. 


aper 


arbor 


aper 


(4) 


medic-US 


medicus 


medicus 


medicus 


medicus 


puteus 


medicus 


medicus 


(s) 


gaza 


gaza 


gaza 


aper 


aper 


gaza 


aper 


gaza 


(6) 


puteus 


puteus 


tentam. 


puteus 


puteus 


avis 


tentajn. 


avis 


(7) 


setiescalcus 


senesc. 


senesc. 


Roma 


sapient. 


sapient. 


sapient. 


filius 


(8) 


ietttamina 


tentam. 


puteus 


tentam. 


tentam. 


tentajn. 


avis 


vidua 


(9) 


Virgilius 


Virgil. 


Virgil. 


gaza 


Roma 


Virgil. 


gaza 


jmtrix 


(10) 


avis 


avis 


avis 


avis 


avis 


medicus 


inclusa 


A ntenor 


(") 


sapientes 


sapient. 


sapient. 


sapient. 


gaza 


sen. + Rom. 


Roma 


spjtrius 


(12) 


vidjia 


noverca 


vidua 


vidua 


vidtia 


amatores 


vidua 


cardamum 


(13) 


Roma 


filia 


filia 


Virgil. 


Virgil. 


inclusa 


Virgil. 


assassinus 


(14) 


inclusa 





noverca 


inclusa 


inclusa 


vidua 


puteus 


inclusa 


(15) 


vaticinium 





vaticin. 


vaticin. 


vaticin. + 


vat. + attiici 


vaticitt . 


vaticin. 



B. THE ENGLISH VERSIONS 



The English versions of The Seven Sages of Rome fall into two dis- 
tinct groups, the Middle EngHsh versions and the Early Modern 
English versions. 

The Middle English versions are preserved in nine manuscripts, all 
belonging to the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Only 

1 The Middle English manuscripts, with the exception of F, for which see p. xlix, 
follow the order of A* ; the later English versions, the order of H. For the order 
of stories in the Welsh version, see p. xxxiii above ; for the order in the fragmentary 
Old French metrical version preserved in a Chartres manuscript, see p. xxviii. — The 
stories in the Dolopathos are as follows : (i) canis, {2) gaza, (3) senes, (4) creditor, 
(5) vidiiae filiiis, (6) latro>iis filiiis, (7) cygni eqties, (8) inclusa + putetis. 



xxxvi INTRODUCTION 

two of these manuscripts (C and R, which furnish respectively the text 
and the variants printed in this volume) are copies of the same text. 
Of the rest, one (As) was probably based directly on some French 
manuscript and hence has no connection with any other English manu- 
script. The remaining eight manuscripts all find a common source in a 
thirteenth-century English manuscript now lost. The source of this 
lost manuscript, as also of As, was some Old French manuscript belong- 
ing to group A*. All the Middle English versions are in the octo- 
syllabic couplet. 

The Early Modern English versions of The Seven Sages have no 
connection with the Middle Enghsh versions, but represent a quite 
distinct line of tradition, all of them going back to H. This group 
comprises the prose version printed by Wynkyn de Worde, with the many 
derivatives therefrom, and a Scottish poem by John Rolland of Dalkeith. 
All of these were printed very soon after their composition. 

I. THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS 

The nine Middle English manuscripts of The Seven Sages are as 
follows : 

1. Cotton Galba E. ix (C), in the British Museum. 

2. Rawlinson Poet. 175 (R), in the Bodleian Library. 

3. Auchinleck (A), in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. 

4. Arundel 140 (Ar), in the British Museum. 

5. Egerton 1995 (E), in the British Museum. 

6. Balliol College 354 (B), in the Library of Balliol College, 
Oxford. 

7. Cambridge University Ff. IL 38 (F), in the Cambridge 
University Library. 

8. Cambridge University Dd. L 17 (D), in the Cambridge 
University Library. 

9. Asloan (As), in the Library of Lord Talbot de Malahide, 
Malahide Castle, Ireland. 

A Brief Description of the Manuscripts. — i . C. MS. Cotton Galba 

E. ix.^ The Seve?i Sages occupies folios 25^ to 48^. It is written in 

double columns, 47 lines to the column. The text of The Seven Sages 

is complete, comprising 4328 lines. The handwriting is strikingly 

1 See pp. Ixvii f. for a more detailed description of C. 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS xxxvii 

regular and clear ; it belongs, according to the most reliable authorities, 
to the first third of the fifteenth century. Lines i to 134 and 3108 to 
4328 are printed in Weber's Metrical Romances, Edinburgh, 1810, III, 
pp. I f. and 108 f. C furnishes the text for the present edition of The 
Sevefi Sages, comprising pp. 1-145 of this volume. 

2. R. MS. Rawlinson Poet. 175 (new number 14667).^ The Seven 
Sages extends from folio 109^ through folio 13 1'^. It is written in double 
columns of 44 lines each. The text is incomplete, two folios which 
should follow the folio numbered 125 having been lost. Moreover, in 
the binding of the manuscript the two folios which should come just 
after folio 123 were placed just after folio 125 and numbered 126, 127. 
R is a copy of the same manuscript as that from which C was copied, 
but it differs from C in spelling (and occasionally in wording), in the 
addition of a couplet after 1. 2364 (according to the numbering of C), 
in the omission of two couplets (in C, 11. 12 79-1 280 and 2843-2844), 
and in the omission, pointed out above, of two folios comprising 11. 
3673-4022 in C. 3974 lines of R remain. The manuscript is written in 
a hand of the middle of the fourteenth century. No edition of R has 
been published, but its variants from C are published in the footnotes 
to this edition, pp. 1-145. 

3. A. The Auchinleck Manuscript.^ The text of The Seveji Sages 
occupies folios 85^ to 99"*. It is fragmentary at both beginning and 
end; but 2646 lines ^ remain. The date of the manuscript is about 
1320.* A was published by Weber in Metrical Romances, Edinburgh, 
1810, III, pp. 1-153 ; it comprises, however, only 11. 135-2779 in this 
edition, C having been used for the remainder, A collation of this 
edition with the manuscript was published by Kolbing in Englische 
Studien, VI, pp. 443 f. Copious extracts of A, together with an analysis 
of the entire poem, may be found in Ellis's Specimens of Early English 
Metrical Romances, London, 181 1, III, pp. i f. (the same, ed. J. O. 
Halliwell, London, 1848, pp. 405 f.). Textually A is comparatively pure. 
Its dialect is Kentish. 

1 See, for a fuller description, pp. Ixx f. below. 

2 Described by E. Kolbing, E>igl. Stud., VII, pp. 178 f. 

3 Of these the first line, " For be mede of mi seruise," is omitted in Weber's 
edition in order to avoid a clash in rhyme with C. 

* See Kolbing, Arthour and Merlin, p. Ix ; Brandl in Paul's Grundriss, II, i, 
p. 653, and the N. E. D. under Beiiison, Boil, Boy, Grace, Hale, etc. 



xxxviii INTRODUCTION 

4. Ar. MS. Arundel 140. This, a paper manuscript, belongs, accord- 
ing to Ward (^Catalogue of Romances, II, p. 224), to the fifteenth 
century. The Seven Sages occupies folios 152 to 165^. The text is frag- 
mentary at both beginning and end, beginning near the conclusion of 
aper and ending shortly after the opening of vaticiniiim ;'^ 2565 lines 
remain. The manuscript is much faded, and in many places illegible, 
at the end of the (^-columns and the beginning of the r-columns. Single 
lines have been lost after 11. 618 and 2549 ; after 1. 919 an extra line, 
without a corresponding rhyme, has been introduced. Ar is imperfect 
also in its meter ; the number of lame lines is not small, and there are 
likewise a good many imperfect rhymes. The dialect is Kentish. No 
edition has yet appeared. 

5. E. MS. Egerton 1995.^ This also is a paper manuscript, written 
probably in the second half of the fifteenth century. The Seven Sages 
occupies folios 3 to 54''. It is written in single columns, with initials in 
red and with very regular capitalization. The text comprises only 3588 
lines, but is complete. The meter is comparatively good, and the 
rhyme very regular. The dialect is not strongly marked, but appears 
to be Kentish.^ This text has not been published. 

6. B. Balliol College MS. 354. This manuscript was written early in 
the sixteenth century,* and according to Coxe (Cafa/ogus, I, p. no) is 
in the hand of John Hyde ; the colophon, however, concludes with the 
words, " Quod Richard Hill," whence we are pretty safe in inferring 
that Richard Hill was the scribe. The Seven Sages begins with foHo 18^ 
and ends with folio 54'^. The text is complete, in 3708 Hnes. Abbre- 
viations are few. The rhyme is pretty regular. Sometimes the same 
rhyme is used for a leash of four or more lines. The dialect is Southern.^ 
No edition of the text has been printed, but the Early English Text 
Society has for several years been advertising the entire manuscript as 
calling for publication. 

1 The lines in C corresponding to the first and last lines of Ar are 1041 and 
3848. 2 YoT a general description, see Ward, /.c, II, pp. 218 f. 

^ The representative of Anglo-Saxon ji' is usually e, but is occasionally j, as in 
the rhymes ^}i)ine : /)';/«^ (1317-1318) and wymie: jj';/^ (163 5-1 636). Occasionally, 
too, E affects a Northern pronunciation, as in kyiige : yonge (93-94) and yo)tge : 
comiynge (3581-3582). 

* See articles 31 and 98 of the manuscript. 

^ A few forms in which Anglo-Saxon y is represented by e are probably to be 
traced to a Kentish original. 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS xxxix 

7. F. Cambridge University MS. Ff. IL 38 (formerly "More 690 "). 
This is a paper manuscript of about the middle of the fifteenth century.^ 
The text of The Seven Sages occupies folios 134^ to 156'^, and is 
incomplete, folios 141 and 144 having been lost entirely and folio 135 
in part; 2555 lines remain. The rhyme is not often incorrect, but un- 
rhythmical lines abound, especially in the first half of the poem. The 
dialect is somewhat mixed, but is clearly that of some one of the 
Southern counties. As in B, there are traces' of a Kentish source. 
Extracts from F are printed in Halliwell, The Thornton Romatices, 
Camden Society Publications, XXX, pp. xliii f. ; Wright, The Seven 
Sages, Percy Society Publications, XVI, pp. Ixx f. ; and Petras, Uber 
die inittelenglischen Fassungen der Sage von den Sieben Weisen Mei- 
stern, Breslau, 1885, pp. 60 f. 

8. D. Cambridge University MS. Dd. I. 17.^ This manuscript belongs 
to the end of the fourteenth century,^ and is written on parchment. 
The text of The Seven Sages is complete, but is obviously the work of 
a careless scribe ; no less than thirteen couplets have been vitiated by 
the loss of one of their Hues,* and there are other serious textual 
crudities. The dialect is Southeast Midland, with a liberal intermixture 
of Northern forms. An edition of D was made by Thomas Wright in 
1845 (Percy Society Publications, XVI, pp. if.). A collation of this 
edition with the manuscript was published by Kolbing in £ngl. Stud., 
VI, pp. 448 f. 

9. As. The Asloan Manuscript. This manuscript, according to Varn- 
hagen, who has described it in £ngl. Stud., XXV, pp. 321 f.,^ was 
written about the beginning of the sixteenth century. The Seven Sages 
occupies folios 167 to 209 inclusive, and comprises about 2800 Hues. 

1 See Halliwell, T/ie Thornton Romaiices, London, 1844, pp. xxxvif., and the 
Cambridge University Library Catalogue of Manuscripts, II, p. 408. 

2 See, for a general description, the Cambridge University Library Catalogue of 
Mamiscripts, I, pp. 15 £., and W. W. Skeat, William'' s Vision of Piers the Plowtnan, 
E. E. T. S., 1869, XXXVIII, pp. xxiii f. 

3 The N. E. D. under Carol, 6, dates the manuscript somewhat later — about 
1425; Morsbach, Mittelenglische Grammatik, Halle, 1896, p. 9, for some inex- 
plicable reason would place it around 1300. 

4 These are the lines coming immediately after or immediately before lines 
1312, 1417, 1696, 1719, 2094, 2293, 2695, 2840, 2960, 3057, 3134, 3365, and 3395. 

, 5 The manuscript is also described by J. Schipper, Poems of Dimbar, Vienna, 
1891, Part I, pp. 5 f. 



xl 



INTRODUCTION 



The text is incomplete, the stories vidua and Roma having been 
omitted entirely.^ The rhyme of As is good, but the rhythm is often 
faulty ; particularly awkward are certain daring enjambements? The 
dialect is Scottish. A complete transcript of As, made by D. Laing in 
1826, belongs to the Library of the University of Edinburgh. An 
extract of 196 lines (the story avis) was published by Varnhagen in 
Engl. Stud., XXV, pp. 322 f., with his description of the manuscript. 
An edition of the entire poem by the same scholar has for several years 
been advertised by the Scottish Text Society as " about to appear." 

The Interrelation of the Manuscripts. Of the nine Middle English 
manuscripts, only two — C and R — are copies of the same text. Five 
other manuscripts, however, — A, Ar, E, B, and F — are closely related 
to each other and to the text reproduced by C and R, and, together 
with these two, make up the group which I designate as Y. 

The close interrelationship of the manuscripts that constitute Y may 
be graphically shown by the following table, the result of a line-for-line 
comparison for the section which C, R, A, Ar, E, and B^ have in common,* 
the comparison being restricted to identical lines ^ and similar rhymes. 



(i) C = 2064 lines 





Total 


Ident. 


Similar 




Total 


Ident. 


Similar 




lines 


Ihies 


rhymes 




lines 


lines 


rhymes 


R 


2062 


2010 


1028 


C 


2064 


2010 


1028 


A 


1816 


26 


338 


A 


1816 


26 


336 


Ar 


I916 


19 


4«3 


Ar 


I916 


19 


411 


E 


1843 


II 


352 


E 


1843 


II 


351 


B 


1932 


13 


281 


B 


1932 


13 


279 



(2) R = 2062 lines 



1 There are, according to Laing (see his transcript), other lacunae, but of less 
moment ; among them a lacuna after 1. 61, which Laing takes to involve the loss 
of an entire folio, but which probably amounts to less than ten lines. 

2 As, for example, in the following couplet (11. 19-20) : 

In Rome cite than was thar sevyne 
Sagis, the wisest vndir hevyne. 

^ F, owing to the radical irregularities which characterize that part of its text 
which corresponds to the section used for this comparison, is excluded from the 
table. 

* That is : for C, 11. 1041-3104 ; for R, 11. 1041-3102 ; for A, 11. 963-2778 ; for Ar, 
11. 1-1916; for E, 11. 949-2791 ; for B, 11. 933-2864. 

^ In the numbering of identical lines account is taken of any differences in 
word-order, but not of differences in spelling. 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS 



xli 





(3) A- 


18 16 lines 






(4) Ar = 


191 6 lines 




Total 


Ident. 


Similar 




Total 


Idetit, 


Similar 




lines 


lines 


rhymes 




lines 


lines 


rhymes 


c 


2064 


26 


338 


C 


2064 


19 


413 


R 


2062 


26 


336 


R 


2062 


19 


411 


Ar 


I916 


234 


722 


A 


1816 


234 


722 


£ 


1843 


125 


636 


£ 


1843 


169 


746 


B 


1932 


116 


537 


B 


1932 


137 


646 




(5) E 


= 1843 lines 




(6) B = 


1932 1 


ines 


C 


2064 


II 


352 


C 


2064 


13 


281 


R 


2062 


II 


351 


R 


2062 


13 


279 


A 


1816 


125 


636 


A 


1816 


1x6 


537 


Ar 


1916 


169 


746 


Ar 


1916 


137 


646 


B 


1932 


83 


558 


£ 


1843 


83 


558 



This table clearly demonstrates a close kinship between the seven 
manuscripts concerned. It will be shown later that F, also, is for a 
large part of it very near to these manuscripts. But despite such close 
kinship as is here demonstrated, no one of the seven manuscripts is 
based on any other member of the group ; all go back to a common 
Middle English source, now lost, which I designate as y. 

Of the remaining two manuscripts, one, D, though it differs from 
Y considerably in motif and quite radically in wording, seems never- 
theless to be nearly related to Y. But it cannot have been based 
on any one of the manuscripts that make up Y, since it is in some 
respects more faithful than any of them to the Old French source. 
Accordingly, we have to assume that its source was the manuscript (or 
some derivative therefrom) upon which y was based, — a manuscript, 
therefore, which is the parent of all except one of the Middle English 
manuscripts. This lost manuscript — the source of C, R, A, Ar, E, B, F, 
and D — I designate as x. 

As was probably drawn directly from the French. This I have been 
unable to establish conclusively, but there is no substantial evidence of 
a basis upon any other one of the extant Middle English manuscripts. 

The grounds for these generalizations, and further details as to the 
mutual relations of the Middle Enghsh manuscripts, may best be pre- 
sented in a consideration of each of the manuscripts separately. I first 
consider the manuscript which has served as the basis of the text edited 
in this book. 



xlii INTRODUCTION 

I. C. Both Petras^ and Kolbing^ held C to represent a distinct ver- 
sion of The Seven Sages, a translation made directly from the Old 
French and related with other Middle English manuscripts only through 
a common Old French source. That this view is erroneous, however, 
a glance at the table given above will show ; for it is inconceivable 
that two quite independent translations should have, in a total of less 
than two thousand lines, 26 identical lines and 338 similar rhymes.^ 
Such close agreement clearly contradicts any theory of independent 
translation ; it indisputably proves a near relationship between C and 
the rest of Y. 

The exact nature of this relationship, however, does not at once 
appear. The tabular evidence would indicate either that C was based 
on some other one of the manuscripts included in the table, or that 
these manuscripts were based directly or indirectly on C, or that they 
are related with C through a common source. 

One naturally thinks first of all of a basis for C in R ; but it is shown 
below, in the section on the Cotton-Rawlinson redaction,^ that the two 
go back to a common source,^ the lost manuscript cr. That C was not 
based on any of the other manuscripts of Y is established by the cir- 
cumstance that in several instances C is more faithful to the Old French 
than is any one of them. For example, in 1. 3264 C reads Hiingeri 
in accord with A* and K, while the other Middle English manuscripts 
substitute either Pleiys or Poyle. Again, 11. 3039-3042 faithfully repro- 
duce the Old French (see note to 11. 3039-3042), while the other related 
manuscripts are silent here. Other passages in which C is unique in its 
fidelity to the French are pointed out in the notes to 11. 2988, 3612, 
3765-3768, and 4195-4196. And further evidence supporting this con- 
clusion is afforded by the numerous passages (see note to 1. 1189) in 
which C falls in with F as against other manuscripts ; for a basis of C 
upon F, in the light of the latter's radical peculiarities, is entirely out 
of the question. It is quite clear, then, that C was not derived from 
any other of the Middle English manuscripts that have been preserved. 

It is also easily demonstrated that no other of the Middle English 
manuscripts was based on C; for there is not one of them save R 

^ Uber die mittele7iglische7i Fassiingeii dei- Sage von den Sieben IVeiseti I\Ieister7t, 
p. 21. 2 £f,^i_ stud., VI, p. 442. 

3 These are the figures for C and A ; for C and Ar the number of similar rhymes 
is even larger. * Pp. Ixvi f. 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS xliii 

(whose relation to C is discussed later ^) that is not in one or more pas- 
sages closer to the French than is C. Thus in medicus, C is the only 
one of the Middle English manuscripts, save R, that omits mention of 
the burning of the nephew's books, a feature which is constant in the 
French versions ; so, likewise, in omitting the name of the tower — 
Cressent — in Roma. Moreover, there are in C a number of additions 
(among them 11. 1335-1342, 1520-1526, 2537-2544, 2595-2600, 
3886-3892, 3909-3922) of which there is no trace in any other text. 

We are, accordingly, driven to the conclusion that C is related to A, 
Ar, E, B, and F through some Middle English manuscript which was 
either y or a copy of y, and that it reproduces this manuscript in a 
few particulars more faithfully than do any other of the manuscripts 
that go back to it. 

2. R. The Rawlinson manuscript, as the tabular statistics make ob- 
vious, is merely a copy of the text preserved in C. It is in an earlier 
hand than C, but C was not copied from it ; neither was R copied from 
some manuscript of which C was a faithful transcript ; but the two are 
independent copies of the same original, cr. — For further particulars 
concerning the relation of R and C,^ see below, pp. Ixxi f. 

3. A. The oldest of the Middle English manuscripts is the Auchin- 
leck. This manuscript is in the Kentish dialect — the dialect, in all 
probability, in which the immediate source of Y was written — and 
doubtless reflects better than any other manuscript the phonology and 
the inflections of this parent version (y). In wording, too, A must be 
nearer to y than is any other of the manuscripts. In some instances, 
indeed, it reproduces the very words of the French ; as, for example, 
in 1. 666, " Deu vous doint bonjour " = L 15, " Diex vos doint bon jor " 
(where B 652, " Deux vous garde bonjour," is the only other manuscript 
which approximates A), and 1. 743, " in pount tournis " = L(A*) 17, "sur 
le pont torneiz " (where other manuscripts employ an English phras- 
ing). Other and perhaps better evidence of A's fidelity to its source 
is found in the comparative table of lines and rhymes given above, 
in which it is shown that, with two exceptions,^ all the manuscripts 

1 Pp. Ixxi f. 

2 R being merely a copy of C, it will be unnecessary in the rest of this section 
to differentiate between the two. When mention is made of C, it may be under- 
stood that what is said of it holds also for R. 

3 C and R in such a comparison must, of course, count as one. 



xliv 



INTRODUCTION 



there taken account of have more in common with A than with any 
other manuscript. 

But that A was not the source of Y is proved by its omission of 
sundry passages found both in other members of Y and in the Old 
French. This abridgment is most violent in the conclusions to certain 
tales — in particular, aper, gaza, Virgilius, avis. Thus A has nothing 
corresponding to C 1041-1058 (= Ar 1-20, E 949-968, B 933-948, 
L (A*) 25), nor to C 2370-2376 (= Ar 1 280-1288, E 2204-2222, 
B 2244-2252, L (A*) 55), while against C 1472-1490 (= Ar 456-479, 
E i4oi-i426,B 1393-1420,1 (A*) 34) it has only six lines, 1387-1392.^ 

1 An illustration of this fault of A may be given by the citation of A, Ar, and 
L (A*) for the last of the passages alluded to. 



Ar 456 Loude \>^\ gonne on hym to crye, 

And saide, " Lentylyon, kyjjc )?y mastry, 
Helpe Jjy disciple at j^is nede." 
pe master a-lygt \>o of his stede, 

460 And grate \>q. 'Emperotir on his kne. 
Unnejie wold he hym see. 
fie Emp^rourd? saide, " pou fals man, 
Be hym Jiat al men-kynde wan, 
pou art fekell and fatourc, 

465 Losenger^ and eke trayto2i!r«." 
" A, why, syr, leue lord ? 
So nas I neuer^, saue fiy word. 
Syr, \^y gentyll wyue late us her^, 
And w'it/i goddes helpe we schull us 
skoris." 

470 " I Sow toke my son to loke 
And for to tech hym on boke, 
And )>ou first bygan to tech, 
By-nome his tong and his spech, 
And taugt hym sith v/ii/i mor^ stryf, 

475 For to nyme forth my wyf. 
Je schull wite heir<?-of noujt ; 
Bot when he is to de^ie broujt, 
I schull dampne J^e and jjy feren 

479 To drawe and honge by Jje swyren." 



L 34 Chascun li escria : 
Ha ! mestre, or pansez de 
vostre deciple. 

. . . et descent de son 
cheval. 

. . . et s'en vient devant 
I'empereur, si le salue: . . . 
Li emperferes respont au 
salu qui li a dit : Ja dex ne 
vos beneie. 

Avoi ! fet messires Lan- 
tules, pourcoi dites vos ce ? 

Ge le vos dirai, fait 11 
empereres, je vos avoie 
baillie mon fil k aprendre 
et a endoctriner, et la pre- 
miere doctrine que li avez 
faite, si est que vos li avez 
la parole tolue ; I'autre qui 
veult prendre ma fame k 
force. Mes ja Dex ne vos en 
doint joir ; et bien sachiez 
que tantost comme il sera 
morz, vos morroiz apres, et 
seroiz destruit ensement. 



The lines corresponding to this in A are the following (1387-1392) : 
And th' emperour wel sone he fond : 
He gret him faire, ich understond. 
Th' emperour saide, " So God me spede, 
Traitour, the schal be quit thi mede ! 
For mi sones mislerning, 
Ye schulle habbe evil ending ! " 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS xlv 

This proves that neither C, Ar, E, nor B was based on A, F, for 
these passages, is either fragmentary or badly garbled, so that nothing 
can be inferred from them as to its history ; but it will be shown later, 
under the discussion of F, that this manuscript, too, was not based on A. 
As for D and As, some details in which each of them is alone in its 
loyalty to the Old French establish also that neither one of them was 
derived from A. 

That A was not based on any other extant Middle English manu- 
script goes without saying, for it antedates all of them. It is likewise 
not to be believed that A was based on any manuscript older than itself 
of which some one of the extant manuscripts is a transcript ; the expres- 
sions cited above in which A is alone in its fidelity to the Old French 
contradict any such theory. 

Our conclusion must be, then, that A goes back to y independently 
of all other known manuscripts, and that it has had no direct influence 
on any other one of them. In both incident and phrasing it is, as will 
appear below, nearest to Ar, but there is no conclusive evidence that 
this nearness is traceable to any contamination of the two manuscripts. 

4. Ar. The Arundel manuscript, like the Auchinleck, is fragmentary, 
but is nevertheless one of the most important of all the manuscripts 
that have been preserved. It is probably a hundred years younger 
than A, and is upwards of fifty years younger than R ; yet in its fidelity 
to y it yields only to A, and that only in the body of the stories, for in 
the transitional parts, as has been shown, A sometimes abridges freely. 

E, B, and C unite with Ar in retaining most of the passages ojpitted 
by A, but all three of these manuscripts exhibit features of their own 
which are obviously not traceable to y. E abridges often, as will appear 
below; B freely alters rhyme and word-order, and sometimes makes 
changes in motif ; while C makes a number of slight additions and 
is otherwise independent, at times, in both phrasing and incident. 

F, though in all probability very close to y in the second half, is for 
the first half the most garbled of all the Middle English manuscripts. 
Ar, in contradistinction to these, rarely has an incident peculiar to 
itself or even a couplet, but is almost invariably paralleled, whether in 
content or in wording, by one or more of the nearly related manuscripts. 
In the first igoo hues it adds only one couplet, 11. 1871-1872. 

When Ar is paralleled by only one other manuscript, this manuscript 
is usually A. Thus Ar 552, "I wyll become wode and wylde," finds 



xlvi INTRODUCTION 

nothing closely corresponding to it in any other text save A (1. 1462), 
which is identical with it; so Ar 668, " }?ane cam he rynnyng as a 
lyuarde " = A 1580, "And he com als a leopard"; Ar 676, " Behote 
heme pens a pours full" = A 1588, "Bihote hem pans art handfolle " ; 
Ar 1 5 18, "To loude )'0u spake ]>y Latyn " = A 2396, "Al to loude thou 
spak thi Latin," — none of which find any close correspondence in any 
of the remaining manuscripts. Such agreements with A go far toward 
confirming the theory of Ar's nearness to y. Nor are certain agree- 
ments of Ar with E against all other manuscripts contradictory to this 
theory ; they merely indicate that E is probably for the passages con- 
cerned near to y. 

As to the relationship of Ar to other manuscripts, it has already been 
shown that despite its nearness to A it could not have been based on 
A, since it reports faithfully certain passages which A omits. Neither 
could it have been based on C, since Ar in various places is nearer to 
the Old French ^ ; nor on E, since Ar falls in with A, C, and B in repro- 
ducing sundry lines which E discards (see below) ; nor, finally, on B, 
since B was of later composition. And that Ar was not based on F, D, 
or As is too obvious to require any demonstration. 

It is not so easy to show that some one or more of the manuscripts 
were not based on Ar, but this would seem to follow from the circum- 
stance that Ar exhibits a few features peculiar to itself, — for example, 
the rhymes to 11. 171-172, 227-228, 463-464, etc., and the spelling 
Julius and July in Roma where all other manuscripts better preserve 
the Genus and Jenvier of the French. 

5. E. The Egerton manuscript is, happily, complete, but its value is 
somewhat impaired by the rather frequent slight omissions it makes. 
Among single couplets omitted are the following : after 1. 996 (= C 
1083— 1084), after 1. 1024 (= C iiii-ii 12), after 1. 1400 (= C 1469— 
1470), after 1. 1500 (=C 1581-1582), after 1. 1530 (=C 1625-1626), 
after 1. 1558 (= C 1655-1656), after 1. 1578 (=C 1679-1680); and 
after 1. 2472 (= C 2679-2690) several couplets have been lost. 

Except for these omissions, however, the scribe of E adhered to his 
original rather slavishly. He rarely varied either incident or rhyme, as 
appears clearly enough from the comparative table of lines placed in 

1 See the present editor's dissertation, A Study of the Rcmiance of The Seven 
Sages of Rome with Special Reference to the Middle Eitglish Versions, Baltimore, 
1898, p. 56. 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS xlvii 

evidence above. The most striking variation is that made just before 
the end, beginning with 1. 3561, for which see the note on 11. 4325 f. 
of this edition. 

E, then, must be grouped with A and Ar as one of the manuscripts 
nearest to y. 

Its nearest relationship, as the comparative table indicates, is with 
Ar ; its next closest relationship, with B. After Ar and B it is nearest 
to A. The tabular statistics given above do, indeed, seem to indicate 
that E is nearer to A than to B ; but this seeming discrepancy is 
explained by the greater freedom exercised by B in the change of 
word-order, which affects rhyme as well as the identity of the line 
otherwise. And a comparison of incident and phrasing is conclusive 
in establishing a nearer relation to B. In senescaicus, for instance, 
where A, C, and D, in agreement with the Old French, report that the 
king at the beginning of the story despised women, according to E, Ar, 
and B he took great delight in women. So also there are occasional 
couplets which are peculiar to E, Ar, and B ; among them the follow- 
ing for the first fifty lines : E 965-968 (= Ar 17-20, B 945-948) and 
E 977-980 (= Ar 29-32, B 959-962). 

But despite its nearness to Ar, B, and A, E cannot have been copied 
from any one of them. That it was not based on Ar is established by 
its preserving certain lines which Ar is alone in omitting (e.g., E 987- 
988, 1 621-1622, 1809-1810). That it was not based on B is obvious 
from the rhyme evidence given in the statistical table. And that it 
was not based on A was demonstrated under the discussion of A by the 
citation of passages preserved by B but arbitrarily omitted by A. The 
deriving of E from any other of the Middle EngUsh manuscripts is put 
out of the question by the tabular evidence adduced at the outset. 

It is also certain that no other Middle English manuscript was based 
on E. For A, C, and D antedate E, while Ar, B, and F all at some point 
exhibit greater fidelity to the lost originals. Perhaps E and B were 
transcribed not directly from y, but from a manuscript intermediate 
between them and y. 

6. B. The Balliol manuscript, next to the Cotton and Rawlinson manu- 
scripts, is the fullest and longest of all Middle English manuscripts, — 
this, however, in the main not because of independent additions so 
much as because of the avoidance of such curtailments as characterize 
A and E. Still B does occasionally make independent additions : in 



xlviii INTRODUCTION 

the first thousand Unes of the passage from which the tabular statistics 
were drawn it has i6 couplets which do not appear elsewhere; and 
occasionally the addition is of even more moment, as in 11. 1693 f., 
where B reports that the steward is put to death by pouring molten 
silver and lead down his throat. 

But the most characteristic feature of B is the large number of trifling 
alterations in phrasing and in word-order. This is to be accounted for, 
in part, by the scribe's effort to improve the rhythm of lines which, 
owing to the loss of inflections, had by the time at which he wrote — 
the sixteenth century — become imperfect; in part, to a timid effort 
to adjust the phraseology and word-order to the usage of his time. 

The relationship of B to other manuscripts is not very obvious. The 
comparative table near the beginning of this section seems to indicate 
a closer relationship with Ar and A than with any other manuscripts. 
But a comparison on the basis of slight omissions and additions tends 
to contradict this, and points to E as being nearest to B. In almost 
every instance in which B agrees in an addition or an omission with any 
other manuscript, this manuscript is E. To be specific, there are in the 
first thousand lines of the constant element in Y (= B 933 f.) a total of 
ten such variations, of which nine are in agreement with E. There are 
also certain minor details which B and E have exclusively in common.^ 

But B was not derived from E, since it retains certain couplets which 
were omitted by the scribe of E but which are, except for this, constant 
in Y. Among these are B 1007-1008 (= C iiii-ii 12, A 1019-1020, 
etc.), B 1391-1392 (=C 1469-1470, A 1385-1386), B 1533-1534 
(=C 1625-1626, A 1500-1499), and B 1589-1590 (= C 1679-1680, 
A 1 549-1 550). That B was not based on either A or Ar has already 
been shown. That it was not based on any other one of the manu- 
scripts is too patent to justify an attempt at demonstration. 

That no one of the remaining manuscripts was drawn from B is estab- 
lished by B's posteriority in date and by the abundance of slight variations 
(as, for instance, the additions mentioned above) which characterize it. 

7. F. Before entering upon a discussion of the relationship of F 
(Cambridge University MS. Ff. II. 38) to other manuscripts, it will be 
well to state briefly some of the peculiarities of the manuscript. 

It has been pointed out under the brief description of the Middle 
English manuscripts that the text of F is fragmentary, and comprises 

1 See the present editor's Study of The Seven Sages, p. 59. 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS xlix 

only a little upwards of 2500 lines. The fewness of lines in F, how- 
ever, does not arise so much from its fragmentary condition — for F 
contains all or parts of fifteen stories — as from a radical abridging of the 
first eleven stories. The introduction and the first eleven stories com- 
prise in F only 1439 lines, while the last four stories comprise 1116 
lines, or more than E or B for the corresponding passages. 

Even more noteworthy than this abridgment of stories are the sub- 
stitution for senescalcus and Virgilitts of two new stories (for which see 
the notes to 11. 1689 f. and 2159 f.) and, coincident with this, a sweeping 
change in the order of stories. Only eight stories (i, 3, 5, 10, 11, 13, 
14, 15) retain their usual order; the two new stories take the places 
(7 and 9) of the stories they supplant ; and, for the rest, 2 changes 
place with 8, 4 with 12, 6 with 2, 8 with 4, and 12 with 6, — with the 
result that the order of stories in F is : (i) arbor, {2) putetcs, (3) aper, 
(4) tentamina, (5) gaza, (6) vidua, (7) The Riotous Son, (8) cajiis, 
(9) The Squire and his Borrow, (10) avis, (11) sapientes, (12) medi- 
cus, (13) Roma, (14) inclusa, (15) vaticiniiim. 

In the content of the first eleven stories, owing to the compression 
to which they have been subjected, there are naturally many minor 
variations from the usual version. These are partly in the nature of 
omissions; as in arbor (which comprises only 16 lines), where no 
mention is made of the merchant's journey, nor of the trimming away 
of the branches of the old tree ; and in sapientes, where the account of 
Merlin's interpreting the stranger's dream is omitted. There are also 
a number of striking alterations and additions. Thus aper deals with 
a swineherd who, having lost one of his flock, fears to return to his 
masters, and has climbed a tree and is eating some acorns when the 
wild boar comes up ; puteiis substitutes for the curfew law a law accord- 
ing to which any husband found away from home at night with any 
other woman than his wife must be stoned to death ; tentamina adds 
a fourth trial of the husband, in the killing of his hawk ; avis makes 
the paramour a priest, and records that the wife was put to death by 
her enraged husband ; and vidua reports that there was only one thief 
which the knight was to watch, and adds to the mutilations of the 
husband's corpse the cutting off of two fingers.-"^ 

1 For a more detailed presentation of tlie peculiarities of F, see the editor's 
Study of The Seven Sages, pp. 64-66. 



1 INTRODUCTION 

How to account for such freedom in F is not at once clear. One 
would think of a basis for the first eleven stories in oral accounts ; but 
this is rendered extremely improbable by the fact that throughout this 
part there is frequent agreement in rhyme, and now and then agree- 
ment in whole lines, with other Middle English manuscripts.^ Or, 
again, it might be supposed that F was made from some very fragmen- 
tary manuscript, but there is no substantial basis for this supposition, 
and the changed order of stories is entirely against it. The most plau- 
sible theory is that the redactor of F had before him a complete manu- 
script, which for some reason — possibly to conceal his source — he 
arbitrarily altered for the first eleven stories, and then, growing weary 
of his task, reproduced, for the rest, practically what he found. 

Accept this explanation, and the problem of F's relationship becomes 
very simple ; for if the variations of the first part of the text are attribu- 
table to the scribe of F, this part is of little value for purposes of com- 
parison, and we are accordingly restricted to the last part as the basis 
for investigation. 

For this part F presents comparatively close textual agreement with 
E, B, C, A, and Ar (the last two unhappily fragmentary here). No 
single important detail and but a very small percentage of the rhymes 
have been changed, while lines identical with lines in one or more of 
the rest of the manuscripts are numerous. This agreement is closest 
with Ar, and next in order with E ; thus, for the 845 lines (F 1440-2285) 
which F, Ar, and E have in common, F has only 53 lines identical with 
lines in E, but 1 16 identical with lines in Ar. Again, for this section, F 
preserves in agreement with Ar 26 couplets which do not appear in E. 
And there are a few passages in which F agrees only with C, in some 
of which passages, it should be noted, F and C are nearer to the Old 
French than are any of the rest of the Middle Enghsh manuscripts 
(see the note to 1. 1189). In the light of these agreements with C it 
is impossible to derive F from A, Ar, E, or B. Neither can we derive 
F from C ; that is precluded by the agreement of F with Ar and other 
manuscripts where C is free.^ We must conclude, then, that F was 

1 Some of the lines for the first eleven stories of F, which are identical with 
lines in other manuscripts are 5 (= C 9), 10 (= B 8), 69 (= E 61 and B 69), 133 
(= A 157), 146 (= A 176), 151 (= B 165), 908 (= A 2566), and 1314 (= A 2355). 

2 See, for instance, the notes to 11. 2537-2544, 2595-2600, 3164-3170, 3443- 
3446, 3886-3892, 4009-4012, 4 1 33-4 1 36, etc. 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS li 

based on y independently of any other extant manuscript; and, con- 
versely, in view of F's mutilations of its original, that no other of the 
extant Middle English manuscripts was based on it. 

8. D (Cambridge University MS. Dd. I. 17) is even freer than F; 
but unlike F, it is free throughout its entire extent. 

Among the pecuharities of D are the following : 

(i) The queen, known in Y as Milicent (or Ilacent), is called Helie (or 
Elye) ; (2) in cam's, the knight, after learning the truth about his greyhound, 
drowns himself in a fish pool in his garden ; (3) in medicus, the barrel inci- 
dent is omitted ; (4) likewise, in gaza, the accounts of the finding of the 
headless body and of the subsequent efforts to identify it are omitted ; 
(5) in Virgilius, MerHn is substituted for Virgil ; (7) in the same story, 
the entire first episode — that of the image with the arrow — is omitted ; 
(8) in sapientes, the finding of the child Merlin and the incident dependent 
thereon are omitted ; (9) in the same story, after all the sages have been 
slain and the caldron is clear. Merlin and Herod ride outside the city gates 
and Herod regains his sight ; (10) in Ro/na, there are three heathen kings 
instead of seven; (11) in vaiicinijim, the father and the son at the begin- 
ning of the story are on their way to visit a hermit on an island in the sea ; 
(12) in the same story, the city to which the father comes in his distress is 
" Plecie." 

It was because of such abundant deviation from the typical Middle 
English version of The Seven Sages that Wright ^ and Petras ^ held that 
D had its immediate source in some Old French manuscript and was 
unrelated to any other Middle English manuscript. And this view does 
seem to derive some support from the variations just cited, for three of 
the twelve features enumerated as peculiar to D among Middle English 
manuscripts are, nevertheless, found in the Old French, In explana- 
tion of these agreements with the Old French it is necessary to assume 
either that D is unrelated to other Middle English manuscripts save 
through the French, or that it was based on some Middle English 
manuscript nearer to the Old French than are any of the rest of the 
Middle English manuscripts known to us. 

That the latter of these two theories is the correct one is established, 
I believe, by certain textual parallels between D and the manuscripts 
belonging to group Y. Between A and D, for example, there are, for 

1 Percy Society Publications, XVI, p. Ixviii. 

2 Uber die mittelenglischeii Fassinigen, u.s.w., pp. 44 f. 



lii 



INTRODUCTION 



the section which the two have 

passages : 

D 

When on levede, anotbir tooke. 

(i6o) 
By God, maister, I amnoghtdronken, 
Yf the rofe his nougt sonken. 

(209-210) 

Hym byfel a harde caes. 

(222) 
And to have anothir wyf, 
For to ledde with thy lif. 

(231-232) 

A good childe and a faire, 
That sal be oure bo the ayere. 
For sothe, sire, I hold hym rnyn, 
Also wel as thou dost thyn. 

(267-270) 
Than sayd mayster Baucillas, 
" For soth this his wondir cas : 
Tharefore take counsel sone 
What his best to don." 
The childe answerd ther he stood, 
" I wyle gyf sou counsel good; 
Seven dayes I mot forbere 
That I ne gyf no answere." 

(360-363, 368-371) 
Thus they were at on alle, 
And wenten agayen into the halle. 

(388-389) 
By hym that made sone and mone, 
He ne hade nevere with me done. 

(464-465) 
Also mote bytide the 
As dyde the fyne appul-tre. 

(582-583) 
That knave kest hym fruyt y-nowe. 
And clam a-doune f ra bough to boghe. 

(972-973) 
And rent hys wombe with the knyf, 
And bynam the bore hys lyf. 

(982-983) 



in common, the following parallel 



Whan o maister him let, another 
him tok. (189) 

Other ich am of wine dronke, 
Other the firmament is i-sonke. 

(21 1-212) 
Ac sone hem fil a ferli cas. 

(222) 
Ye libbeth an a lenge lif : 
Ye scholde take a gentil wif. 

(227-228) 
Hit is thi sone, and thin air ; 
A wis child, and a fair. 
For thi sone I tel mine, 
Alse wel als tou dost thine. 

(283-284, 289-290) 
Than seide master Bancillas, 
" Here is now a ferli cas ! 
Counseil we al herupon 
How that we mai best don." 
Than seide the schild, " Saunz fail, 
Ich you right wil counseil. 
This seven daies I n'el nowt speke ; 
Nowt a word of mi mowht breke." 

(371-378) 
With this word, thai ben alle 
Departed, and comen to halle. 

(401-402) 
I swere bi sonne and bi mone 
With me ne hadde he neuer to done. 

(451-452) 
Ase wel mot hit like the 
Als dede the pinnote tre. 

(543-544) 
He kest the bor doun hawes anowe, 
And com himself doun bi a bowe. 

(921-922) 
The herd thous, with his long knif, 
Biraft the bor of his lif. 

(933-934) 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS 



liii 



" A ! sire," quod mayster Ancilles, 
"God almighty send us pees! " 

(id 1 8-1 019) 
That se bytyde swilk a cas 
As bytyde Ypocras, 
That slow hys cosyn withouten gylt. 

(1026-1028) 
With my lorde for to play. 

(i 100) 
Oppon a day thay went to pleye, 
He and hys cosyn thay twey. 

(i I 18-11 19) 
And mad hym myry, and spendid 

faste, 
Al the wylle that hit wolde laste. 
He that lokyd the tresour, 
Come a day into the tour. 

(1220-1223) 
Bot hastilich smyt of my hede. 

(1255) 
Byfore the dore, as I kow telle, 
Thare was a mykyl deppe welle. 

(1381-1382) 
To do thy wyl by a-night, 
Yf I schal helle the aryght. 

(1 546-1 547) 
Now he slakys to lygge above ; 
I wyl have another love. 

(1 686- 1 68 7) 
Er the myrrour be broght a-doune. 
And than gyf us oure warrysoun. 

(1906-1907) 
And dolvyn a lytyl withinne the 

grounde, 
And the tresour was sone founde. 

(1952-1953) 
The ton sayed, " Sire emperour, 
Undir the pyler that berys merour." 

(2002-2003) 



Than saide maister Ancilles, 
" For Godes loue,sire, hold thi pes!" 
(977-978) 
On the falle swich a cas 
Als fil on Ypocras, the gode clerk, 
That slow his neveu with fals werk. 
(994-996) 
With mi louerd for to plai. 

(1083) 
So bifel upon a dai 
He and his neveu yede to plai. 

(1113-1114) 
And beren hit horn wel on hast, 
And maden hem large whiles hit last. 
Amorewe aros that sinatour. 
And sichen to-bregen his louerdes 
tour. 

(i 265-1 268) 
And hastiliche gird of min heued. 

(1299) 
But thou me in lete, ich wille telle, 
Ich wille me drenchen in the welle. 

(I 463- 1464) 
Haue womman to pleie aright, 
Yif ye wil be hoi aplight. 

(1577-1578) 
Ich moste have som other love ! 
Nai, dowter, for God above ! 

(1753-1754) 
Who might that ymage fel adoun, 
He wolde him yif his warisoun. 

(2029-2030) 
And ther thai doluen in the gronde ; 
A riche forcer ther thai founde. 

(2079-2080) 

Than saide the elder to the empe- 
rour, 
" Under the ymage that halt the 
mirour." (2091-2092) 



liv 



INTRODUCTION 



" Gladlich," sayed scho, 

" The bettyr yf hyt wylle bee." 

(2287-2288) 
And hadde seven clerkys wyse. 

(2293) 
Who so anny swevene by nyght, 
O morne when the day was bryght. 

(2296-2297) 

Hyt was a knyght, a riche schyreve, 
That was lot hys wyf to grave. 
He sate a daye by hys wyf, 
And in hys honde helde a knyf. 

(2471-2474) 

Bot sayed for non worldlys wyne 
Schulde no man parte horn a-twyne. 

(2487-2488) 
In hyr hoond scho took a stoon, 
And knockyd out twa teth anoon ! 

(2601-2602) 



Bletheliche, sire, so mot ich the, 
So that ye wolde the better be. 

(2337-2338) 
He hadde with him seuen wise. 

(2343) 
That who that mette a sweven 

anight, 
He scholde come amorewe, aplight. 
(2349-2350) 
" Sire," he saide, " thou might me 

leue, 
Hit was a knight, a riche scherreue. 
So, on a dai, him and his wif 
Was i-youen a newe knif . " 

(2563-2564, 2569-2570) 

The leuedi saide, for no wenne, 

Sche ne wolde neuer wende thenne. 

(2581-2582) 

" Than wil ich," she saide, and tok a 

ston. 
And smot hem out euerichon. 

(2713-2714)1 



Some of these agreements are, in all probability, merely accidental, 
but not all of them ; it is highly improbable that two independent trans- 
lations should have, in a total of 2500 lines, four lines identical and 
upwards of forty similar rhymes.^ 

In the light of these agreements, then, and in view of the rarity and 
insignificance of the situations which D has in common with the French 
as against the remaining Middle English manuscripts, it can hardly be 
held that D represents an independent translation from the Old French. 
The evidence adduced seems to warrant no other conclusion than that 



1 For a fuller list of such textual parallels between D and A, and for a partial 
list of the parallels between D and E, see the editor's Study of The Seven Sages, 
pp. 78f. 

2 That is, one similar rhyme out of every thirty couplets. The percentage is 
much larger for the first hundred lines of D : a comparison of D with E for these 
lines shows one identical line and eight similar rhymes, or one similar rhyme to 
six couplets. 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS Iv 

D and Y have a common Middle English source, a manuscript now long 
since lost.^ 

This source could hardly have been y, since the manuscripts compos- 
ing Y differ but slightly despite the fact that each of them goes back 
to its source independently of all other members of the group. Conse- 
quently we must assume for D and y a basis in one and the same Middle 
English translation of the French, a manuscript which I designate as x. 

9. As. The relationship of the Asloan MS. to other English manu- 
scripts is even more difficult to determine than is that of D. For As, 
while it agrees in a number of instances with the Old French as against 
the remaining Middle Enghsh manuscripts, exhibits an even larger 
number of situations in which it differs from both Middle English and 
Old French : it is, in brief, the most free of all the English manuscripts. 

A comparison with other Middle English manuscripts and the Old 
French L (A*), K, D*, and H, made on the basis of the first 600 lines, 
reveals the following details peculiar to As : 

(i) The Queen dies when the Prince is three years old ; (2) the sages 
are introduced in the following order, their names being spelled as indicated : 
Bantillas, Aunxullus, Lentalus, Catone, Malcome, Ampustinus, Cratone ; 
(3) the sages call together masons and have them build the hall in which 
the Prince is to be taught; (4) the Emperor, when he is advised by his 
barons to marry again, says that he is already old and that marriage might 
shorten his life; (5) Bantillas accompanies the Prince to court; (6) as 
soon as it develops that the Prince will not speak at all, the Emperor asks 
Bantillas if the child has become dumb, to which Bantillas replies that he 
spoke well enough that morning ; (8) the burgess in arbor is called Cornele ; 
(9) Bantillas, in the introduction to cants, reminds the Emperor that the 
Prince's offense is not by Rome's laws a capital offense, since the Queen 
was not a maid. 

The same 600 lines have no details in which As agrees with the 
Middle Enghsh against the Old French, but they have the following 
details in which As agrees with the French as against the rest of the 
Middle English manuscripts : 

(i) The Emperor seals the message he sends to the sages with his own 
ring (not in A*, K, and D*, but in H) ; (2) the Prince, on approaching the 

1 The agreement of D with the Old French as against all the members of group 
Y precludes, of course, the deriving of D from any of the extant Middle English 
manuscripts. 



Ivi INTRODUCTION 

royal palace, bows courteously, but is silent ; the Emperor conducts him 
to a hall of state and asks him how he is pleased with the sages ; (3) the 
Empress, on hearing of the arrival of the Prince, fits herself out in royal 
manner and proceeds, accompanied by her maids, to the hall of state ; 
(4) arrived at the hall of state, the Empress learns of the child's persistent 
silence ; ^ she asks that she be allowed to try to make him speak, and so 
leads the Prince away, against his will, to her chamber; (5) in a?-bor, the 
fruit of the pine refreshes the people of the city ; and when the burgess has 
the pine cut down the people lament that he has been so great a fool (this, 
as (i), only in H) ; (6) the knight in canis, at the end of the story, breaks 
his spear in pieces, renounces all joy in arms, and goes to the Holy Land. 

Such agreements with the Old French quite establish that As was 
not based on any other of the extant Middle English manuscripts or on 
the lost y. They do not, to be sure, prove that As was not ultimately 
based on x (the common source, posited above, of y and D), but they 
beget a strong prejudice in favor of that view. In truth, in the light of 
the frequency of the exclusive agreements with the French, I should not 
hesitate to assert that As was surely an independent translation from 
the French, were there not (as in the case of D) a few lines in As which 
find rather close parallels in some of the manuscripts comprised in Y. 
These lines are for the first 600 lines of As the following, C being used 
as the representative of Y : 

As C - 

Within na mar space than sevynejeir. Within ^e t^rme of seuyn ger^. 

(36) (64) 

That I sail him all science leir, ... I sal him \ere ful right and rath 
That I haf and my fellouis baith. J?at I can and mi felous bath. 

Than rais the secound sage full raith. (73-74) 

(35. 37-38) 

1 The agreement here with the Old French is very striking. As (212-217) reads : 

Scho said : " My Lord, is this your child ? " 

" 3a," he said, " hot he is exild 

Fra speche, that na word speke may he." 

Than said scho : " He sail ga with me 

To chalmer or we twa disseuer ; . 

He sail speike anys and he speke euer," 

which is a pretty close paraphase of L (A*) at this point (p. 10) : " Sire, fait elle, 
est ce vostre filz ? Oil, fet li empereres, mes il ne parole mie. Sire, s'il onques 
parla, bailliez le moi, je le ferai parler." 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS 



Ivii 



As 
Under ilk nuke of his bed. 

(95) 
Than counsall gaf Bantillas. 

078) 
That I haf kepit my madinhed. 

(235) 
Quhill the grew-hound the edder 
sleuch. 

(442) 
In this cuntre nocht fer heir west 
Sumtyme ther stude a fair forest. 

(524-525) 
And with his nalis and with his tuskis 
So rudly at the rute he ruskis. 

(544-545) 
That first he wynkit, syne fell on 

slepe ; 
Tharto the herd tuke grathly kepe. 

(562-563) 



Vnder ilka corner of \>e bed. 

(221) 
ban spak Maist^r Bausillas. 

(457 ; see also A 371) 
Haue I keped my maydenhed. 

(512 ; see also A 460) 
At I'C last he grehund he neder slogh. 

(843) 

Sir, a litel her^ by west 
Was su;/ztime a faire forest. 

(963-964 ; see also A 881-882) 
pe bar^ for tene t>an whet his tuskes, 
Audwrot \>e erth vp al in buskes. 

(991-992) 
He closed his yen als he wald slepe, 
And W bird han toke gude kepe. 

(1013-1014) 



It may be that these agreements are to be traced, as with D, to a 
development of As from x, but I think not ; they are, in my judgment, 
merely accidental agreements growing out of the sameness of the 
Middle English romancers' vocabulary. 

Authorship. — Concerning the authorship of the Middle English ver- 
sions nothing of moment is known, A colophon ^ to B does ascribe that 
text to one Richard Hill,^ but this ascription doubtless signifies nothing 
more than that Richard Hill was the scribe of the manuscript whence 
B was copied, or that he was the redactor of the B text. Interesting is 
the conjecture of Kolbing^ that A was written by the author of the 

^ This colophon reads as follows : " Thus endith of the vii. sages of Rome 
which was drawen owt of crownycles a;ii/ owt of wrytyng of old men and many a 
notable tale is ther in as ys beffore sayde. — Quod Richard Hill." 

2 Just who this Richard Hill was I have been unable to find out. From article 
31 of the manuscript we leam that he was "hansed" at Barow in 1508, at 
" Briguis " in 1511, and at Antwerp in the same year; also that he was made free 
of the merchant adventurers of England at Barow, May 25, 1508 ; and that he was 
sworn at Grocers' Hall, November 10, 151 1. But further than this I have been 
unable to learn anything. ^ Alte7igl2sche Bibliothek, Leipzig, 1890, IV, p. civ. 



Iviii INTRODUCTION 

Kentish versions of Arthour and Merlin, Alisaunder, and Richard 
Coer de Lion, but his conjecture has no tangible support. Quite as 
interesting, but also quite as valueless, is the ascription, on a fly-leaf of 
the Rawlinson manuscript,^ of the R text (then also, of necessity, the 
C text) to Richard RoUe of Hampole. There is no evidence that the 
pious Yorkshire monk ever had any literary connection with The Seven 
Sages of Rome. Other references to authorship are lacking. The nature 
of the framework and stories might be thought of as favoring lay author- 
ship for the parent version, but it does not by any means establish it.^ 
Until other manuscripts are brought to light or other sources of infor- 
mation are discovered, we must remain in ignorance as to the author- 
ship of the Middle English versions of The Severi Sages. 

Place and Date of Composition. — The place of composition of the 
manuscripts that have survived is presumably indicated by the dialect 
of these manuscripts ; that is, for C and R the north of England (York- 
shire probably),^ for A, Ar, and E Kent, for B and F the south of Eng- 
land (perhaps Kent), for D the southeast Midland, and for As Scotland. 
As for the lost manuscripts, y was almost assuredly written in Kent, 
since all but one of the manuscripts derived from it are either in the 
Kentish dialect or show a Kentish influence ; x, the parent of all the 
known Middle English manuscripts save As, also probably belonged to 
Kent, since all circumstantial evidence favors the view that y represents 
X much more closely than does D. It should be added that it is just 
those manuscripts — A, Ar, and E — which reflect the Old French most 
faithfully that are most obviously Kentish in dialect. 

The time of composition of the Middle English manuscripts is prob- 
ably, with one exception, roughly indicated by the handwriting of the 
manuscripts.^ The one exception is C, which, although written in a hand 
of the first third of the fifteenth century, was composed not later than 

1 On the verso of the paper fly-leaf at the beginning of the volume ; in a much 
later hand than that of the manuscript proper. It is a list of the contents of the 
volume, to which is added the following : " All writ by Richard Role or Hampole 
a native of Hampole near Doncaster in Yorkshire where he died in among the 
Cistercian nuns An°. Dom. 1349." 

2 Indeed, Ritson believed the redactor of C was most likely a monk (see his 
Ancient Engleish Metrical Rornancees, London, 1802, III, p. 229). 

3 See the detailed consideration of the dialect of C given below, pp. Ixiii f. 

* These dates have been given above (pp. xxxvii f.) in the formal description 
of each of the manuscripts. 



THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSIONS lix 

the middle of the preceding century. For determining the date of y, A 
is of most importance. This manuscript dates from about the year 
1320, so that y must have been written before that date — in the first 
years of the fourteenth century probably. If we assume for y a dating 
about 1300, we must assume for x, whence y and D were derived, an even 
earlier dating; about the year 1275 is, I feel, a conservative guess. 

Source. — The source of the Middle English versions ^ was some form 
of the Old French version A*, manuscripts of which have been published 
by Plomp, De Aliddelncdcrlandsche Bewerkiiig van het gcdicht van de?i 
VII Vroedc?!, pp. 1-5 i, and (in part, with variants from L for the rest) 
by Leroux de Lincy, Roman des Sept Sages, pp. 79-103. All the Middle 
English manuscripts save F (which, despite its freedoms, was derived 
from the typical Middle English form of the story) preserve the same 
order of stories as that of A*, and all except F, D, and As, which are 
very free at times, agree pretty closely with A* in content. All other 
Old French versions differ from the Middle English type in the order 
of stories, and are likewise further removed from it than is A* in the 
content of stories and of the framework. 

In view of the fact that both x and As were in verse, one would 
incline to look for a source for them also in verse, but there is no sub- 
stantial evidence that there ever existed a metrical form of A*. Still it 
must be observed that neither of the manuscripts of A* which have 
been published preserves faithfully the form from which the Middle 
English versions were derived, for there are a few details in which the 
Middle English manuscripts agree with other Old French versions as 
against A*. The chief among these is the incident in Vi)giliiis of the 
images cast by Virgil for the east and west gates of Rome, an incident 
which is related by K (11. 3960 f.) and D* (p. 41), but which does not 
appear in the printed manuscripts of A*. Less important details in 
which X is nearer to other French versions than to A* as printed are 
pointed out in the notes to 11. 2 106-2 108 and 2111-2112. 

1 The problem of the source of the Middle English versions has been worked 
out by Petras, Uber die mittelenglischen Fassufigeii, ti. s. w., pp. 31 f. ; see also the 
present editor's Study of the Seven Sages, pp. 87 f. 



Ix INTRODUCTION 

II. LATER ENGLISH VERSIONS 

The later English versions include (i) the translation printed by 
Wynkyn de Worde, (2) an edition by William Copland (now lost), (3) a 
metrical version by John Rolland, (4) a dramatic version by Dekker, 
Chettle, Haughton, and Day (probably never printed), and (5) a large 
number of later prose versions derived from the Wynkyn de Worde 
text.^ These constitute a distinct group, in no way related with the 
Middle English versions except very indirectly through different, though 
distantly related. Old French sources. 

I. The translation printed by Wynkyn de Worde is in prose. Its date 
is not definitely known. A penciling in the British Museum copy — the 
only copy known to exist now — places the date conjecturally in the 
year 1505, but in the British Museum Catalogue the date is given con- 
jecturally as 1 5 1 5 . A reprint of the British Museum copy was made by 
L. Gomme for the Villon Society in iSSs.'-^ 

The British Museum copy is in black letter ; it is without pagination, 
but comprises 81 leaves. It begins as follows: "Here begynneth 
thystorye of ]'e -vii- Wyse Maysters of rome conteynynge ryghe fayre 
& ryght ioyous narrac/ons &: to ]'e reder ryght delectable." The text 

1 According to Clouston there should also be included here another metrical 
version of The Seven Sages of Rome, by one Robert Brenant. Clouston says 
{The Book of Sindibdd, p. 356): "The Bodleian Library, Oxford, has ... a curious 
metrical version entitled: Sage aiid prjideiite Saynges of the Seven wyse Men, by 
Robert Brenant, with a comment, London, 1553, small 8vo, black letter." A 
diligent hunt through the catalogues of the Bodleian Library, in which I was 
generously aided by several officials of that library, brought no confirmation of 
this assertion. It seems that Clouston has been led astray by Hazlitt, who cata- 
logued in his Handbook, pp. 660 f. (London, 1867), under the same heading with 
sundry authentic editions of The Seven Sages of Rome, a work of the same title 
as that cited by Clouston, but by a Robert Biirratit rather than by Robert 
Brenant. A copy of Burrant's book is preserved in the British Museum, and 
bears the title, The sage attd prudent saiynges of the seuen tvisemen, with the 
imprint, London, 1553. Examination of this work reveals that it has no connec- 
tion whatever with The Seven Sages of Rome, but is really a version of The Seven 
Sages of Greece or Dicta septern sapientnm Graeciae. It should be added that this 
piece of composition is not at all, as Clouston reports, in verse, but is bald and 
dull enough prose. 

2 The History of the Seven Wise Masters of Rome, London, 18S5. A few pages 
missing in the British Museum copy the editor supplied from the 1671 prose 
derivative described below. 



LATER ENGLISH VERSIONS Ixi 

proper begins : " Somtyme in ])e Cyte of Rome was an Emperour 
named Poncianus a man of grete wysdome." The colophon is as 
follows : " Thus endeth the treatyse of the seuen sages or wyse maysters 
of Rome. Enprented in Flete strete in pe sygne of the sone. by me 
Wynkyn de worde." 

The Wynkyn de Worde edition was translated by an anonymous 
translator from some member of the Historia family, probably one of 
the Latin prints rather than the Old French translation. As a transla- 
tion of H it is comparatively close, though it abridges at times and 
also occasionally makes independent additions.^ 

2. No copy of the Copland edition has survived so far as is known, ^ 
but a copy of it was in existence less than a hundred years ago if the 
bibliographers are to be relied on. According to Dibdin,^ Ritson pos- 
sessed a copy, which, according to some, he had secured from Baynes. 
Dibdin further reports a memorandum by Ritson giving the introduc- 
tory lines and the colophon of his copy. The introductory lines are, 
except for slight variations in spelling, the same as those quoted above 
as introducing the text of Wynkyn de Worde. The colophon likewise 
is very close to that of de Worde's edition ; it runs as follows : " Thus 
endeth the treatyse of the seuen sages or wyse Maysters of Rome. 
Imprinted at London in Flete strete at the sygne of the Rose Garland, 
by me William Copland." Such close agreement between the two here 
establishes a very strong probability that the Copland edition was no 
more than a reprint of the earlier edition.* The date of the Copland 



1 See Buchner, Die Historia Septem Sapienttim Jtach der Innsbrucker Handschrift 
V.J. IJ42, iiebst einer Untersuchting iiber die Quelle des Seuin Seages des Jo/me 
Holland von Dalkeith, in Erlanger Beitr., V, p. 95, note, Erlangen and Leipzig, 1889. 

2 Clouston, The Book of Sindibdd, p. 236, asserts that a copy is " preserved in 
the Glasgow University Library"; but later, on p. 355, he contradicts this. — 
Keller, Sept Sages, p. Ixxx, confounds the Copland print with a Caxton print 
variously entitled Treatyse of the Seven Points of Love, Ghostly Matters, and Oro- 
logiiim Sapientiae, a treatise quite different from The Seven Sages of Rome (see 
Blade's Catalogue, p. 20, and Buchner, I.e., pp. 96 f.). 

3 Typographical Antiqtiities, London, 1816, III, p. 170. 

^ Douce, however, in a note on a fly-leaf of the Bodleian copy of the 1653 
edition of The Seven Sages, asserts that the edition of 1693 (a copy of which is in 
the British Museum) was a reprint of the Copland edition, in which case we must 
conclude that Copland's edition differed somewhat from that of de Worde in 
phrasing. 



Ixii INTRODUCTION 

edition is not known, but the bibliographical authorities place it be- 
tween 1548 and 1 56 1. 

3. The metrical version by John Rolland of Dalkeith is in the Scottish 
dialect; its metrical form is the heroic couplet. The original edition 
bears the date 1578,^ but the colophon gives the date as 1560, and 
Laing, who has published a reprint of it,^ has rightly concluded^ that 
1560 is the date of the composition of the poem. The Rolland version 
seems to have been very popular in its day, passing through at least 
seven editions (1590, 1592 [two editions], 1599, 1606, 1620, and 1631) 
in little more than half a century after its first appearance. It does not 
possess, however, any considerable literary worth. 

Sundry conjectures have been made as to the source whence Rolland 
drew. Laing held that he used either the Copland print, or some Latin 
or Old French text of H. Petras, who did not know of the edition by 
Wynkyn de Worde, considered the question at some length,* and con- 
cluded in favor of the Old French translation of H ^ as Rolland's original. 
But that neither of these views is correct, and that the Rolland version 
was the rather based on the edition by Wynkyn de Worde, has been 
conclusively proved by Buchner in his dissertation^ referred to above. 
This he estabhshed by showing that where there are differences between 
H (either Latin or French), the Wynkyn de Worde version, and the 
Rolland version, the last two versions are in almost every instance in 
accord with each other. Buchner cites a large number of textual parallels 
between the two EngUsh versions in further support of this conclusion. 

4. The dramatic version of The Seven Sages of Rome has been lost. 
Henslowe tells us that it was acted in London in March, 15 99-1 600, 

1 This edition was published under the following title: The seuin Seages : 
Translatit out of prois in Scottis meter be lohne Rolland in Dalkeith. 

2 D. Laing, The Seven Sages in Scottish Meter by Johtt Rolland of Dalkeith., 
published for the Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1837. A new edition under the 
editorship of George F. Black is promised by the Early English Text Society. 
— W. A. Shaw, in the sketch of Rolland's life in The Dictionary of A'ational 
Biography, erroneously asserts that the 1578 edition was also "reproduced in 
Sibbald's Chronicle 0/ Scottish Poetry" ; in reality only 48 lines of the poem appear 
there (J. Sibbald, Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, Edinburgh, 1802, III, pp. 285-287). 

^ P. xiii. 4 ggg hig dissertation, pp. 47 f. 

5 The second of the texts published by Gaston Paris, Deitx Redactions, pp. 55- 
205. 

6 Pp. 93 f. 



LATER ENGLISH VERSIONS Ixiii 

but there is no evidence that it was ever printed. The following re- 
ceipt, signed " VV birde," appears in Henslowe's Diary under the date 
March i, 1599^: " Receavd of ni"" hinchlow the i of march to paye to 
harry chettell Thomas decker william hawton Sz: John daye for a boocke 
called the 7 wise m" the some of xi^". Three other entries^ under the 
same date record three other payments — of ;z^38 in all — for the ex- 
penses of bringing out the play. And there are further entries for 
March 2 and March 25 of the same year. According to J. O. Halliwell ^ 
Haughton was chiefly responsible for the play, the rest — Chettle, 
Dekker, and Day — merely assisting him in his undertaking. Other 
information concerning the dramatic version of The Seven Sages I have 
sought for in vain. 

5. The number of later English prose versions is large. Copies of 
the following prints are found either in the British Museum or in the 
Bodleian Library or in Harvard College Library : — 

(i) " 77^1? history of the seiiett wise masters of Rome. Printed by J. C. 
for E. Blackmore, and are to be sold at his shop at the Angell in St. Paul's 
Churchyard. London, 1653." 8°; pp. 188. [Bodleian.] 

(2) " The History of the Seven Wise Masters of Ro7ne. Now newly 
Corrected better Explained in many places and enlarged with many pretty 
Pictures etc. London, Printed for John Wright, next to the Globe in Little- 
Brittain, 1671." 8°; pp. 176. [British Museum.]* 

(3) The same. " London, Printed by E. Crowh, for J. Wright, next to 
the Globe in Little-Brittain, 1673." 16°; pp. 164. [Harvard.] 

(4) The same. " London, Printed for J. Wright, at the Crown on Lud- 
gate Hill, 1684." 12°. [Bridsh Museum.] 

(5) The same. " Licensed to be Re-printed Rich. Pocock. London, 
Printed for M. Wotton, and G. Conyers, at the three Pigeons in Fleet- 
street, and at the Golden Ring on Ludgate-Hill. 1687." 8°. [British 
Museum.] 

« 

1 Henslowe's Diary, ed. W. W. Greg, 1904, I, p. 118 ; ed. J. P. Collier, London, 
1845, p. 165. 

2 Pp. 118-119, Greg; p. 167, Collier. 

^ A Dictionary of Old English Plays, London, i860, p. 224. 

* There is in Harvard College Library an imperfect edition of this type (16°, 
88 leaves, printed by J. Wright), which, according to its title-page, was printed in 
1625. But W. C. Lane, Catalogue of English atid American Chap-books and 
Broadside Ballads in Harvard College Library, Cambridge, 1905, p. T)'^, suggests 
that the date is, fictitious, and he is almost surely right. 



Ixiv INTRODUCTION 

(6) The same. " Newly corrected and better explained in many places. 
Glasgow, By Robert Sanders, one of their Majesties Printers. 1693." 
8°. [British Museum.] 

(7) The same except for rare changes in spelling and capitalization. 
" Now newly corrected, & better Explained in many Places etc. London : 
Printed by J. W. for G. Conyers, at the Golden Ring, in Little Britain, 
1697." 8°. [British Museum.] 

(8) The same except for insignificant changes in capitalization. " Glas- 
gow, Printed by Robert Sanders of Auldhouse ; and are to be sold in 
his shop, opposite to the College. M.DCCXIII." 8° ; pp. 80. [British 
Museum and Bodleian.] 

(9) The same as the foregoing. " Aberdeen. Printed by James Nicol 
Printer to the Town and University. 1717." 8°; pp. 95. [British Museum.] 

(10) " The History of the Seven Wise Masters of Rome. Containing 
Many pleasant and witty Narrations, Very delightful to read. London : 
Printed and Sold by T. Sabine, No. 81, Shoe-Lane, and E. Sibley, Book- 
seller, No. 29, Brick Lane, Spital-Fields." No date. Pp. 168. [Bodleian 
and Harvard.] 

(11) " 77^1? Histo?y of the Seven Wise Masters of Rome : containing 
Seven Days entertainment. In many Pleasant and Witty Tales, or Stories : 
wherein The Treachery of Evil Counsellors is discovered, . . . Newly Cor- 
rected. . . . The Five and twentieth Edition. Printed for J. Hodges, on 
London Bridge ; and J. Johnston in St. Paul's Church-yard." No date. 
12°; pp. 184. [British Museum.] 

(12) ''Roman Stories; or the History of the Seven Wise Masters of 
Rotne : containing Seven Days Entertainment . . . The Fifth Edition, 
London. Printed by T. Sabine and Son, no. 81, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street." 
No date. 12°; pp. 84. [British Museum and Harvard.] 

(13) The same with different pagination and slight differences in capi- 
talization. " Newly corrected, and better explained and enlarged. The 
Thirty-third Edition. Berwick : Printed by W. Phorson. M.DCC.LXXXV." 
12°; pp. 130. [Bodleian.] 

(14) The same. "The Forty-First Edition.' London, J. Hollis." No 
date. 12°; pp. 108. [Harvard.] 

(15) The same. " The Forty-Second Edition. London : Printed and Sold 
by J. Hollis, No. 21, Shoemaker- Row, Black-Friars." No date. Pp. 96. 
[Bodleian.] 

(16) " The History of the Seven Wise Masters [and Mistresses'] of Rome 
containing many ingenious and entertaining stories . . . Thirty-eight Edi- 
tion. Dublin: Printed by A. Fox, Upper Bridge St. 1814." 12°; pp. 72. 
[Harvard.] 



LATER ENGLISH VERSIONS Ixv 

(17) The same. "Thirty-Ninth Edition. Dublin, Published by C. M. 
Warren, 21, Upper Ormond Quay." No date. 12°; pp. 45. [Harvard.] 

(18) " The First Part of the famous History of the Seven Wise Mas- 
ters of Rome. Containing many excellent and delightful Examples . . . 
Newcastle : Printed in this present Year " ; followed by " The Second Part 
of the famous History of the Seven Wise Masters of Rome. . . . New- 
castle : Printed in this Year." No date. 12°; 24 pp. in each part. [Brit- 
ish Museum.] 

(19) " The Famous History of the Seven Wise Masters of Rome. Con- 
taining Many Excellent and Delightful Examples . . . London, Printed 
and Sold in Aldermary Churchyard, Bow Lane." No date. 12°; pp. 24. 
[British Museum.] 

(20) The same as the foregoing except for a slight difference in the 
numbering of the chapters.^ " Printed and sold in Aldermary Churchyard, 
Bow Lane, London." No date. 12°; pp.24. [British Museum.] 

(21) The same as 19 and 20 except for a slight difference in the num- 
bering of chapters. " Printed and sold in London." No date. 12°; pp. 24. 
[British Museum.] 

(22) The same as 19, 20, and 21 except for a slight difference in the 
numbering of chapters. " Boston : Printed and Sold by J. White, near 
Charlestown-Bridge. 1794." 12°; pp. 34. [British Museum.] 

(23) The same as 21. "Printed for the Company of Walking Sta- 
tioners. London." No date. 12°; pp. 24. [British Museum.] 

(24) The same as the foregoing except that the chapter numbering is 
correct. " Warrington : Printed for the Travelling Stationers." No date. 
12°; pp. 24. [British Museum.] 

(25) " 77^1? History of The Seven Wise Masters of Rome. Containing 
Many Excellent and Delightful Examples . . . Printed and Sold in 
London." No date. Pp. 24. [Bodleian.] 

(26) " Wisdoms cabinet opeti'd j or. The famous history of the Seven 
wise masters of Rome, containing many excellent and delightful examples 
. . ." No date or place. 4° ; pp. 24. [Harvard.] ^ 

1 The variations of 19, 20, 21, and 22 in the numbering of chapters are as 
follows: with 19, chap, iv is numbered v, and chap, ix is numbered x; with 20, 
chap. IX is numbered x; with 21, chap, vii is numbered vi ; with 22, chap. 
IX is numbered x, and chap, x is numbered xi. 

2 Besides these twenty-six prints there are others variously reported of which 
I have been unable to trace copies. Ilazlitt {Bibliographical Collections and 
Notes, London, 1882, p. 653) points out that a license was granted to Thomas 
Purfpot in 1 565-1 566 to print T/ie VII. Masters of Rome ; and Brunei {Manuel, 
Paris, 1864, V, col. 298) catalogues an edition of The hystorie of the seven 



Ixvi INTRODUCTION 

These twenty-six editions may be roughly classified in three groups. 

To Group I belong the first ten editions. This group follows pretty 
closely the text printed by Wynkyn de Worde. Its only noteworthy 
changes are in the phrasing and in the addition of a prefatory address 
to the reader. 

Group II, made up of editions ii to 15 inclusive, furnishes a free 
paraphrase of the Wynkyn de Worde text (or of Group I). Four of 
the group — 12, 13, 14, and 15 — bear the title, Roman Stories; or 
The History of the Seven Wise Masters of Rome. The first member of 
the group (11) differs from the rest in inserting near the end four 
stories that are not found elsewhere in the collection. 

Group III includes the last eleven of the editions described. This 
group is characterized by a radical condensing and botching of its 
original, and is cheaply got up in every way. The first three of the 
group represent a middle stage in the progressive mutilation of the 
original. The rest are more condensed. 

The source of these later editions was the text printed by Wynkyn 
de Worde. Whether the edition of 1653 (i) — probably the parent of 
all the rest — was based directly on the Wynkyn de Worde edition, or 
was related to it indirectly through the edition printed by Copland, 
cannot now be established, since no coj^y of the Copland text has 
survived. 

C. THE COTTON-RAWLINSON REDACTION 

Description of the Manuscripts. — The text of The Seven Sages of 
Rome presented in this volume is that of the MS. Cotton Galba E. ix (C). 
In the footnotes to the text are given the variants from C exhibited 
by the MS. Rawlinson Poet. 175 (R), a copy of the same redaction 
as that represented by C. A general description of both C and R has 
been given above (pp. xxxvi f.) ; a more detailed description of these 
manuscripts is given here. 

wise Maisters of Rome by Purfoot, London, 1633, and reports that this edi- 
tion was reprinted in 1666, 1674, and 1684. Mention is also made by Douce in 
some notes on the leaf opposite the title-page of the Bodleian copy of the 1653 
edition (i) of "an edition printed by Pinson in London with cuts," a few leaves 
of which, says Douce, were at the time of his writing (after 1829) in the posses- 
sion of a Mr. Inglis. Douce also asserts, in the same place, that there was an 
edition of The Seven Sai^es in 1682. 



THE COTTON-RAWLINSON REDACTION Ixvii 

MS. Cotton Galba E. ix (C). — The Cotton manuscript came to the 
British Museum from the collection of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton. It had 
escaped from the fire of 1731 with but little injury apparently, the only 
damage of any significance being a slight shriveling at the inner cor- 
ners of some folios, — this, however, only in rare cases sufficient to 
render the text illegible. The manuscript is now inclosed in a hand- 
some modern binding. 

Besides The Seven Sages of Rome the Cotton codex contains copies 
of Vwai?i and Gawain, Minot's poems. The Gospel of Nicodemus, The 
Pricke of Conscience (incomplete), and a number of briefer poems and 
fragments. The Seven Sages is the second article in the volume, and 
extends from folio 25*^ to folio 48^. It is written in double columns, 47 
lines to the column, and comprises 4328 lines. 

The date of the manuscript is early in the fifteenth century.^ 

The handwriting of C is large, round, and easily legible. Occasion- 
ally there are slight obscurations (as in 11. 525, 871, and 15 26-1 530), 
traceable perhaps to the dropping of some chemical upon the vellum. 
Of insertions above the line there are the following : 

of {S79)-> the first e of honeore (594), r in burias (632), Is of als (757), 
Hi (809), the first e of nedder (841), w of now (866), r of biiriase (1036), 
he (II 51), &^ aiterfor (1163), -w of wf/te (1189), him (1192), his (1322), 
<7of j^i (135s), r oi seriautes (i SS^), o oi opind (i ^9 S), vs (1674), sat (1806), 
Se (1894), clothes (1992), hat (2192), j of scho (2422), hijn (2638), h of 
eghen (2720), /of boiland (2727), he (2735), me (2925), come (3515), the 
first a of answare (3996), d oi bread (4253), and k of tok (4315). 

Most of these are paler than the rest, but are probably in the same 
hand. Deletions occur as follows : a maner after maner (304), a second 

1 See Ward, Catalogue, II, p. 213, and Hall, Poems of Minoi, Oxford, 1887, 
pp. viiif. According to some, however, the manuscript belongs to the fourteenth 
century; see Tyrwhitt, Canterbury Tates, London, 1775, IV, p. 330, note; Ritson, 
Ancient EngleisJi Metrical Romance'e's, London, 1802, III, p. 229; and Morris, 
The Pricke of Conscience, Early English volume of the Ptiblications of the Philo- 
logical Society for 1 862-1 864, Berlin, 1863, p. iv, all of whom date the manuscript 
in the second half of the fourteenth century. Schleich, Ywain and Gawain, 
Appeln and Leipzig, 1887, pp. i and xxiv, suggests that the date is even earlier. 
The N'. E. D. under Clergy (C, 1. 62) and Cope (C, 1. 3523) gives the date as " c. 1320," 
but this evidently in consequence of a confusion with A, the editors overlooking 
the fact that A does not begin until 1. 135 and ends with 1. 2779 in the Weber 
edition, from which they cite. 



Ixviii INTRODUCTION 

mani (1192), a second went (1539), a second sho said (2012). The 
only erasures of which we can be sure are an e at the end of child 
(499), and what I take to be the yiordi fowrefenight (261 1), for which 
four skore has apparently been substituted. 

There are comparatively few scribal errors. We can be sure, I think, 
only of the following (all of which I have emended as indicated) : 

Empoure for Emperotire (317), iul ior //(/■(323), message for messages 
(356), said oxQxXX&di (443), ynp omitted (6iy), J>i ior M's (645), tre omitted 
(677), him omitted (831), sware omitted (933), rosott for reson (941), 
lighly for lightly (1079), tiveft ior twelft {\i6%), iiothin ior tiothing {1/^02), 
knele for kneled (1477), ivhedes for wheder (1538), wake/nan for ivakemen 
(1621), tomorw for tojnorow (1666), reswon for resown (1685), chanber 
for chatnber {\766),playng ior playing (1932), ho for hoii (2126), ?toneking 
for iionekins (2167), menial ior meruail (2196), /(a:/for/.az (2257), /«/ for 
han (2263), hat for han (2308), hat added (2345), are for ayre (2345), 
neght for negh (2562), Andior Als (2685), withcwen for withowten (2694), 
shied ior cried {zZd'i)^ lered ior fered (^2^(^S'), righwisdome for rightwisdome 
(3038), Tlz/^ omitted (rubric to inclusa,-^. no), wighly for wightly (3374)j 
me for mene (3842), might omitted (3943),/-? omitted {/\,o\Z'), gignyfy for 
signyfy (4022), aw^omitted (411 1), w for ive (4172), sehn for sehin (4326).^ 

And there are some instances in which the scribe has perhaps made an 
error but of which I take no account in the text proper; see the notes 
to 11. 180, 283, 677, 840, 1008, 1868, 1918, 2012, 2611, 4105. 

The manuscript is comparatively rich in rubrics and rubricated char- 
acters. There are altogether thirty-one rubrics in the poem : that at 
the beginning, which gives the title of the poem, and one before each 
of the prologues and stories. All these are in prose. In color they are 
red throughout. The initial letters of the first Hne of the poem and of 
the first line of each of the prologues and stories are also in red, with 
now and then a trace of blue. Besides these, there are numerous rubri- 
cated characters or flourishes — in red or blue, or in both — within 
the body of the introduction and of the stories, characters which almost 
invariably appear at the beginning of the smaller divisions of thought 
and which I take to indicate paragraph division.^ 

1 All these errors except the first of those indicated for 1. 2345 and that for 
1. 2862 are corrected by R. 

2 These characters appear before a few Hnes which do not logically introduce a 
paragraph (as 2491, 2903, 3555) ; and they are also sometimes omitted before lines 
which clearly begin new paragraphs (as 363, 1435, 181 7, 1955,2001,3157, 4259, 4279). 



THE COTTON-RAWLINSON REDACTION Ixix 

The rubricated initial letters of the first line of the poem and of the 
first lines of the prologues and stories are always large capitals. The 
initial L at the beginning of the poem extends over three lines ; and 
the initials at the beginning of each of the stories and of 11. 27, 141, 
215, 295, 353, and 477, extend over two lines ; the initials of the pro- 
logues cover but one line. Capitalization is, aside from the partial reg- 
ularity just indicated, rather irregular. The initial letters following the 
rubricated characters that indicate paragraph division are doubtless to 
be taken as capitals, though they are not always written as capitals. 
With other lines the initials are usually not capitalized. Within the 
line, proper names are, as a rule, capitalized, though there is inconsist- 
ency here also. 

Thus, while Malqiiidas and Caton are always capitalized, Bancillas 
seems in some places (as in 1. 439) to be spelled with a small letter. Em- 
peror and Empress are with very rare exceptions capitalized. The names 
of places, as Ro?>ie, Nauerne^ Poyl, are usually capitalized, but not invaria- 
bly so. Capital E is, as a rule, indicated by ff. In 1. 2868, by a scribal 
oversight probably, robbed is spelled with a capital. 

Abbreviations are abundant. The commonest of all is naturally that 
for and, which word is never spelled out except in 11. 1059, 2685,^ 
3289, and 4255. Next most common is some combination with the 
letter r ; of such combinations there are the following : ar, ra, er, re, 
ri, ro. Here also should be mentioned the curled r, which I take to 
have the value of re ; it is exceedingly common. It normally appears 
only at the end of a word,'- but in three instances — Floreentme (394), 
couret (2694), and smeretly (3538) — it has medial position. Abbre- 
viations of the nasals are not very common ; so also with the abbrevia- 
tions J-, es, and us. The abbreviated pat and with are also very rare, 
pat being spelled out always except in 11. i, 641, 1558, 2012, 2334, 
2343, 3321, 3360, 3601, and with always except in 11. 2278, 2803, 
3074. Occasionally, and especially in the rubrics introducing the tales 
and their prologues, Roman letters are used for numerals. 

In spelling the most radical irregularity prevails. The letters / and 
y, u and w, a and 0, interchange with the greatest freedom. And 

1 And here surely a scribal error for Als ; see the note on the line. 

2 Sometimes, however, the scribe writes re instead of the curled r ; see 1. 30 
and the note thereon. 



Ixx INTRODUCTION 

occasionally there are freak spellings. For instance, the word Empress, 
usually spelled Emperice or Ei)iperes, is in 1. 491 spelled Emperiz ; 
and Emperor, normally spelled Einperoiir or Emperoure or Emperowre, 
is spelled in 1. 593 E7nparowre. Still there is some order in the seem- 
ing chaos. C consistently uses initial sh rather than sch except in 11. 476, 
619, and 2422. It seldom ends a word with // or // except at the end 
of the line, where it never ends with single / and only rarely with 
single /. Medially P is almost invariably used for /// ; and the palatal g 
is represented by 5 always except \x\ yoivre (2700). The letters 5 and/-, 
it should be added, are identical in the manuscript with z and y respec- 
tively. As a variant of initial iv, tvh is sometimes used, as in whife 
(151 2 and often thereafter), whise (334, 2584, 2799), and wharm 
(2906). And, conversely, w sometimes appears where we should 
expect wh, as in wen (i 131 and 2315) and wat (2^62'). Word division 
is frequently different from that in vogue to-day. 

The manuscript has only one mark of punctuation, a period written 
above the line, and this appears only four times: after has, 1. 197 1 ; 
after Ejfiperowre, 1. 2403 ; after pus, 1. 2667 ; and after was/is, 1. 3850. 
This mark is of variable value ; in 1. 197 1, it has the value of a comma, 
in 1. 2403 it appears where present usage requires that there be no 
punctuation whatever, in 1. 2667 it has the value of a colon, and in 
1. 3850 the value of a semicolon. 

MS. Rawlinsoii Poet. ly^ (R). — The Rawlinson manuscript was 
presented to the Bodleian Library in 1756 by Dr. Richard Rawlinson. 
It came into RawHnson's possession from the Thoresby Collection, and 
had at one time belonged to a " Christofer Fauell," and prior to that 
time perhaps to a " Raphe Wormond." ^ 

The manuscript is not stout, containing besides The Seven Sages, 
only two poems of any considerable length, — The Pricke of Conscience 
and The Ghost of Guy. The Seven Sages includes folios 109^ to 131'=. 
It is written in double columns of 44 lines each. The handwriting is that 
of the middle of the fourteenth century.^ The text is imperfect : the 
two folios which should follow folio 125 have been lost, and two other 
folios, which should come immediately after folio 123, are incorrectly 

1 See F. Madan, Summary Catalogtie of Western Mainiscrifts hi the Bodleian 
Library, Oxford, 1895, III, pp. 321 f. 

2 See Madan, p. 321, and A. S. Napier, Publications of the Mod. Lang. Assoc., 
VII, p. 459. 



THE COTTON-RAWLINSON REDACTION kxi 

placed just after folio 125. In consequence of the loss of these leaves 
R contains only 3974 lines. 

The text of R, however, is in the main well preserved. There are a 
few insignificant obscurations within the line, but the only blemishes 
worthy of note are at the upper outer corners of about a dozen leaves 
where the manuscript has been partially worn away or faded. Perhaps 
the most serious blemish of this sort is found on folio 130, where about 
ten words have been obliterated. 

Scribal deletions and insertions are commoner than in C. Scribal 
errors, however, are no commoner, though some of them are more 
violent than in C; as, for instance, the inverting of here and may in 
1. 113 and the substituting of wist for noght in 1. 224, both of which 
changes destroy the rhyme. 

The rubrics in R are the same as those in C, but rubricated letters 
are fewer and smaller in R ; and of the rubricated characters regularly 
used in C to indicate the smaller breaks in thought there are none in R. 

In capitalization R is the more regular of the two. The initial letter 
of the first word in each line is always capitalized except when this 
letter is fe or v. Within the line there is less of regularity ; names of 
persons are almost always spelled with capitals, but names of places — 
especially Rome — are frequently spelled with small letters. The word 
/_}', in avis, is regularly capitalized. The scribe seems to have shown 
less care as to capitalization in the first half than in the second. 

Abbreviations in R are much more abundant than in C. With and 
f>at, rarely abbreviated in C, are almost invariably abbreviated in R. 
The nasal abbreviations, also, are commoner in R than in C ; so also 
with abbreviations in s and r, except in the case of the curled r, 
which never occurs in R. R abbreviates and only when it appears 
initially. 

In spelling R differs consistently from C in using yh where C uses 5, 
and sch initially where C uses sh. R differs from C, too, in preferring 
always // and tt in words ending in / and /, and in avoiding the char- 
acter f} in medial position. R very often differs from C in other respects 
also, as the footnotes show, but I can discover little regularity in these 
differences. 

Relationship of the Two Manuscripts. — The nearness of C and R to 
each other is obvious enough from the fewness and the insignificance 
of the variants indicated in the footnotes to this edition. But neither 



Ixxii INTRODUCTION 

of them was copied from the other ; each is an independent copy from 
the same lost original, which I have designated as cr. 

That C was not copied from R is established by the following circum- 
stances : that C does not contain the couplet arbitrarily inserted by R 
after 1. 2364 ; and that it preserves, in agreement with other manu- 
scripts of Y, the two couplets (11. 12 79-1 280 and 2843-2844) which 
R omits. 

That R was not copied from C (or from some earlier manuscript of 
which C is a faithful transcription ^) follows from certain agreements 
between R and other nearly related manuscripts where the scribe of C 
made arbitrary changes; thus, in 1. 758, R has Of'vsx agreement with 
A 698 and E 678 where C reads For ; in 1. 1248, R has parof'm. agree- 
ment with Ar, E, B, F, while C has Hereof. Further confirmatory of 
this is the retention by R in 11. 443, 831, 3943, 41 11, of words {said^ 
him, might, and and respectively) which C illogically omits. 

Date of Composition. — The dates of the manuscripts C and R have 
been given above in the detailed description of them ^ : C, according to 
the best authorities, belongs to the first quarter of the fifteenth century, 
R to the middle of the fourteenth century. Our concern now is not, 
however, with the age of these manuscripts, but with the age of the 
redaction whence they were derived, the lost manuscript cr. It has 
been shown above, in the section on the interrelationship of the Middle 
English manuscripts,' that this manuscript was made from another 
Middle English manuscript, that it is, indeed, merely a shghtly ampli- 
fied and otherwise mildly altered copy of the lost manuscript (y) which 
served also as the original of at least five other Middle English manu- 
scripts (A, Ar, E, B, F). It remains to show at what time this elabo- 
rating of y was done, — in brief, to determine when cr first assumed 
manuscript form. 

For determining this, the date of R, the older of the two manuscripts 
copied from cr, is of most moment. This, as we have seen, is about 
the middle of the fourteenth century. The year 1350, then, may be 
accepted as the superior limit for the dating of cr. 

It seems to me impossible to determine whether or not cr was written 
much before 1350 ; for there is no external evidence bearing on the point, 

1 For, as pointed out above (p. Ixvii), C is written in a later hand than R, 

2 Pp. Ixvii and Ixx. ^ Pp. xl f. 



THE COTTON-RAWLINSON REDACTION Ixxiii 

and of internal evidence there is only that of the final e, which is in 
the case of cr by no means definitive. There are in the first thousand 
lines of C lo words which probably pronounce their final e^ and there 
is, besides, at least one word — erth, 1. i8o — for which the meter seems 
to call for the addition of a syllabic e. A like examination of the last 
thousand lines of the poem reveals 5 words which probably have sylla- 
bic final e ^ and 3 uninflected words which should apparently add this 
e^ : in all, 19 words in 2000 Unes, or one example to each 105 hnes. 
Clearly the number is too small to warrant the conclusion that cr is 
much older than R. For although scholars are agreed that in the 
spoken language of the North final e had become silent by the middle 
of the fourteenth century, many of them hold that in the written lan- 
guage the final e retained its syllabic value sporadically for another 
hundred years.* There is, however, nothing in these statistics to dis- 
credit a dating for cr somewhat earlier than the date of R ; and it may 
well be that cr was written in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. 

Dialect. — The dialect of both C and R is Northern, as is sufificiently 
established by the following data^ : 

I. Anglo-Saxon a is regularly represented by a. Of 194 rhymes in 
which some derivative of A.S. a appears, this vowel is represented by a 
in 179 instances; by <?, in 15 instances. With 138 of the 179 rhymes 
in a both rhyme words contain a derivative of A.S. a ; in the remaining 
41 instances the derivative from A.S. a is made to rhyme with an a 
having some other history. These 4 1 instances are as follows : 

lare : ware (43-44), rath: bath (73-74), ware: lare (log-iio), ane : 
fane (157-158), sare : care (313-314), hare: mare (383-384), skath : 
bath (575-576), bathes : clathes (791-792), place : gase (887-888, 945- 
946), tane : -bane (1219-1220), sare: ware (1257-1258), gase: tnase 
(1269-1270), smate : hat (1301-1302), care: sare (1425-1426), stane : 
tane (iS77-^578), hare: sare (1703-1704), dame: hatne (1941-1942), 

1 These are knaue (15), teche {i2e)),fele (162), stede (165), riche (266), ric/ie (386), 
grefe (6<)T,), grete (656), speke (772), and slepe (794). 

2 These are mylde{T,-^^()),gnde (335i),Z>rt;«^ (3469), r/V// £'(4236), and j-^w^(4286). 

3 These are ilk (3666), swiih (3687), and hert (4157). 

^ See, for instance, Morsbach, Mittelengl. Grammatik, Halle, 1896, pp. 14 and 
no. 

^ These statistics are based on C, with which R usually agrees. All striking or 
significant variations exhibited by R are noted. 



Ixxiv INTRODUCTION 

swa: ta (2007-2008), klathe : scathe (2027-2028), viare : care (2093-2094), 
ware: sare (2365-2366), gare : wideivare (241 5-2416), wrath: skath 
(2^/^1-2^^^), place : gase (2553-2554), man: ilkaiie (2953-2954), hame : 
lame (2967-2968), ware : sare (3 1 69-3 1 70), same : hame (3285-3286), _g-ra(:^.- 
fase (3323-3324), tase : gase (3429-3430), care : viare (3591-3592), -mare : 
hare (3603-3604), ^^7/^.- lemati (3613-3614), ware: mai'e (3637-3638), 
gase: place (3649-3650), man : gane (3795-3796), haste : -maste (3885- 
3886), bate: state (3905-3906), ware: mare (3973-3974), rath: bath 
(4197-4198). 

The 15 instances in which A.S. ii is represented by are the fol- 
lowing : 

two : go (13-14), 07ie : done (471-472), clowes : trowes (1021-1022), so : 
go (1151-1152) (11 57-1 1 58), so: mo (1161-1162), so: do (1667-1668), 
lohn^: none (i jiy-i 7 18), go : so (2335-2336) (2549-2550), so: do (2751- 
2752), lohn : none (2939-2940), to (^— toe^ : also (3103-3104), so: vnto 
(3161-3162), done: one (3557-3558). 

In only 8 of these at best (471-472, 1021-1022, 1667-1668, 1717- 
1718, 2751-2752, 2939-2940, 3161-3162, 3557-3558) is the evidence 
of any real significance, since in the rest both, vowels concerned are 
developments of A.S. a. Within the line C uses for A.S. a quite as 
rarely as in the rhyme. R shows a greater fondness for ; in 61 
instances within the line R spells with where C uses a, while there are 
only 7 instances in which C spells with where R has a. 

2. The present participle ends, with rare exceptions, in and. Thus: 

stand: cunand {^iZS-lil)^)^ tihand : cumand (^^()i-i\g2), grottand : stand 
(623-624), slepeand : wepeand (889-890), haldand : hand (1321-1322), 
hand: brinand (2171-2172), hand: taisajid (2x^^,-2176), wand: criand 
(2459-2460), mtirnand : stand (2523-2524), brinand: singand (2827- 
282%'), glowand : -bratid (31 1 1-31 1 2), land : dwela^id {^2\7--}y2\Z), tihand : 
lykand (3521-3522), sayland : land (3893-3894). The only exception 
is furnished by the word hatid-hai/eing, which in two instances (749-750) 
(i 563-1564) is made to rhyme with ing ; and this exception is probably 
only apparent, since it is likely that hand-haueing had lost its participial 
value. 

Within the line there are no examples of the ending in i?ig. There 
are, however, within the line no fewer than 26 examples of the ending 

1 Perhaps with the value of lo/iait, which is the spelling of R in 1. 2939. 



THE COTTON-RAWLINSON REDACTION Ixxv 

in afid} The verbal noun regularly ends in ing, but in one instance it 
has the ending atid {land : ofrand, 2655-2656). 

3. The inflection of the present indicative is for both second and third 
person singular invariably {e)s{e) ; for the plural, es except in one 
instance, where the subject is a pronoun. The evidence of the rhyme 
for the second person singular is briefly as follows: slase : case (755- 
756), dowes : trowes (1021-1022). For the third person singular the 
rhyme evidence is abundant : 

tentes : sietiz (35-36), stmides : handes (547-548), ^^/oyj'.- sais (621- 
622), bathes : clathes {jgi-jCfZ), place : gase (887-888) (945-946), hawes : 
gnaives (999-1000), alegance : graiites (1267-1268), gase : rase (1809- 
1810), wrzVj.- /j'^i' (2505-2 506), ^/^^^.-^^fli-^ (25 53-25 54), hase: case {2622,- 
2624), likes : bisivikes {2'j^'j-2j^d>), failes : counsailes (2977-2978), j-^j/j-^. • 
>^^r««/j (3251-3252), /?^j'.- bus (3475-3476), rase : gase (3507-35o8),_^aj-^.- 
place (3649-3650), _^;'a(;^.- tase (3701-3702), tase : was (3709-3710), cries : 
signyfies (4003-4004), tels : -^elles (4027-4028), ayse : sais (41 79-4180). 

Of the plural only the following instances (all third person) are furnished 
by the rhyme: clowes : trowes (1021-1022), glose : lose (2343-2344), 
likes: biswikes (2747—2748), cries: signyfies (4003-4004), and tels: 
lelles (4027-4028). The one form in which the inflection is not es 
{glose, 1. 2343) was probably abbreviated in the interest of the rhyme. ^ 
Within the line the verbal inflections in both C and R are essentially in 
accord with the inflections indicated by the rhyme. 

In other phonological and inflectional peculiarities there is nothing to 
contradict the evidence thus far adduced : the prefix ge in the perfect 
participle is always dropped, and the en of the perfect participle of 
strong verbs is regularly retained ; the infinitive usually loses its inflec- 
tion except in the case of contract verbs ; A.S. palatal c is usually 
represented by k ; sal and suld are the regular representatives of A.S. 
sceal and sceolde ; and the feminine of the third personal pronoun 
singular is invariably sho or scho? 

Northern words abound. Among words or forms that are either 
mainly or wholly Northern are the following : 

aghteld, atid (= if; 4 instances), are (= formerly j 9 instances), at {= to; 
10 instances), at {= that; 4 instances), boun (or bowne ; 8 instances), 

1 In 11. 46, 233, 369, 538, 713, 811, 1060, 1105, 1258, 1312, 1468, 1665, 1692, 1768, 
2140, 2378, 2457, 2470, 2556, 2716, 2719, 2727, 2888, 3279, 3661, 4314. 
^ See the note on 1. 2343. ^ See the rhyme sho: do, 11. 2961-2962. 



Ixxvi INTRODUCTION 

bus (3 instances), byforn, couenand (or cotunand), cunand (or kintand), 
fra (57 instances), ^/wM, ^r«_y////y, 5z«^ (4 instances, two in the rhyme), 
hethen (3 instances), tnensk, oboune, quite (= white"), seti (= since; 19 in- 
stances), spir, ta {= take), til {= to; 54 instances), tine, tite (i i instances), 
tihand, traist, hir (7 instances), /z<j-_^«/, v7nbithoght, vjitil (= unto), wer 
(= worse). 

These statistics quite establish that both C and R are in the Northern 
dialect. A few of the peculiarities instanced — as, for example, the es 
of the second and third person singular of the present indicative — are, 
indeed, found also in the Midland dialect,^ but these, unsupported by 
forms that are exclusively Midland, clearly have no significance. 

In demonstrating that C and R are Northern, we also demonstrate 
that their source, cr, was Northern ; for while it is not unlikely that the 
scribes of both manuscripts departed somewhat from their original in 
the matter of dialectal forms, it is inconceivable, in the light of the 
rhyme evidence for O.E. a, the inflection of the present plural indica- 
tive, the ending of the present participle, and the abundance of 
Northern words, that they had before them any other than a Northern 
document. We have to conclude, then, that the home of cr was North 
England. There is nothing either in the forms or in the phraseology to 
show that this redaction was not made in the neighborhood of York. 
The agreement with the two oldest and best manuscripts of The Pricke 
of Conscience — the same in which C and R are found — is close both 
in wording and in orthography. 

Meter. — The measure in which the Middle English Seveji Sages is 
written is the octosyllabic couplet, a form much in vogue in the four- 
teenth century, as witness The Hous of Fame, The Rotnau7it of the Rose, 
Confessio Amantis, The Pricke of Conscience, and Cursor Mundi. 

The Cotton-Rawlinson redaction exhibits all the freedoms and irregu- 
larities of meter that were allowed in the better poetry of the time, and 
it also affects certain licenses which the better poets shunned. Of lines 
wanting the initial thesis there are, by my count, 860, or about one in 
every five lines. Of dissyllabic initial thesis there are 36 instances ; of 
reversal of stress in the first foot, 28 instances. And there appear to be 
no less than ten lines (84, 601, 1868, 1901, 1918, 2168, 2972, 3021, 

1 See Brandl in Paul's Griiiidnss, II, i, pp. 612 £., and Morsbach, Mittelengl. 
Grain., p. i 5. 



THE COTTON-RAWLINSON REDACTION Ixxvii 

3497, 3576) of three stresses-' (though some of these, as 1868 and 
19 1 8, it is easy to see, may be traceable to scribal error). Overfull 
lines are not uncommon (see 11. 530, 767, 830, 843, 1008, 102 i, 1595, 
2219, 2269, 2417, 251 1, 2803, 2827); and there is sometimes a 
violent wrenching of accent (as in 11. 699, 793, 1096, 1374, 1453, 
185 I, 2033, 2360, 2607, 3125). Less tangible faults there are too, — 
among them a lack of variety in accent and in pause. 

But despite this array of irregularities and faults, the meter of C 
merits real praise. For although it lacks such correctness and variety 
and fluidity as is to be found in Chaucer or in Gower, it has neverthe- 
less more than average smoothness, and a correctness, both in rhythm 
and rhyme," that is extraordinary. In these regards C will scarcely suf- 
fer in comparison with any other of the romances of the time ; nay, 
more, it will very well bear comparison with the work of some of the 
most famous religious writers of the time. In both smoothness and cor- 
rectness it is quite the equal of The Pricke of Conscie?ice ; and it is, in 
these respects, immensely superior to the oldest surviving text of the 
Cursor Mimdi. 

1 It is due to Professor Kittredge to say that he takes some of these Unes to 
be normal. 

2 See, for a few imperfect rhymes, the note on 11. 229-230. 



SOME ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

1. Arbor. — Found only in The Seven Sages of Rome. 

An exceedingly simple story, which does not lend itself readily to 
variation or elaboration. The chief variations are the following : (i) As 
calls the burgess Cornele ; (2) H represents the tree as having the 
peculiar virtue of curing leprosy, and adds that when the burgess had 
hewn it down he was anathematized by the poor folk of Rome. 

Arbor has made no appeal to other story-tellers. If there are variants 
or analogues of it, they have quite escaped the notice of editors and 
students of The Seven Sages} 

2. Canis.^ — Found in all versions of The Seven Sages : in the Book 
of Sindibad^ in the Dolopathos, and in The Seven Sages of Rome. 

In the Eastern versions canis is much briefer and simpler than in the 
Western versions. The former naturally make no mention of the tour- 
nament ; and they also omit the nurses * and the cradle feature. The 
mother leaves the child in the father's care ; the father, however, is 
called away by a messenger of the king, whom he serves as armor-bearer 
or in some similar capacity. In the Sindibad-nmneh the protecting 
animal is a cat. In the Dolopathos the father, having become stricken 
with poverty, has left his native land shortly before the action of the 
story, and has taken a humbler home in a province near by. Besides 

1 See, however, the note on 1. 16S9 of this edition for a partial reflection of 
arbor in a story introduced into the Welsh version of The Seven Sages. 

2 For literature on canis see G. L. Kittredge, " Arthur and Gorlagon," Studies 
and Notes in Philology and Literature, VIII, pp. 222 f., 269 f. (also in separate 
reprint, Boston, 1903); J. G. Frazer, Fausanias^s Description of Greece, London, 
1 898, V, pp. 42 1 f . ; Keller, Li Romans des Sept Sages, pp. clxxviii f . ; Keller, Dyocle- 
tianus Lebeu, p. 53 ; W. A. Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, Edinburgh, 
1887,11, pp. 166 f . ; T.. Benfey, Pantschatantra,\.€v^z\%, 1859, I, pp. 479 f. ; H. 
Oesterley, Paulis Schinipf tind Ernst, Stuttgart, 1866, pp. 502 f. ; H. Oesterley, 
Kirchhofs Wendunmuth, Tubingen, 1869, V, p. 171 ; and S. Baring-Gould, Curious 
Myths of the Middle Ages, new ed., London, 1881, pp. 134 f. 

3 Except for the Seven Vezirs and the version of Nachshebl. 
* As do also the Dolopathos and the Welsh version. 

Ixxviii 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES Ixxix 

his dog he possesses an eagle, which he has taken with him on a stag 
hunt at the time when the incident happens to the child. The mother 
is also away from home at the time, begging bread. — In the many ver- 
sions of The Seven Sages of Rome the only noteworthy variation is that 
of H in adding a pet falcon^ to the actors in the story ; it is the falcon 
that first discovers the presence of the snake \ he then awakes the dog 
by flapping his wings. 

Analogues of caiiis are found as follows : 

(i) Pausanias, Description of Greece, Bk. X, chap, xxxiii, tr. Frazer, 
I, pp. 551 f . ; (2) the Chinese Vinaya Pitaka, see S. Beal, The Academy 
(London), November 4, 1882, XXII, p. 331 (also in Clouston's Popular 
Tales and Fictions, II, pp. i84f.); (3) the Pantschatantra, Bk. V, No. 2 : 
{a) Benfey, Leipzig, 1859, II, pp. 326 f. ! R. Schmidt, Leipzig, i9oi,pp. 287 f . ; 
{b) J. A. Dubois, Paris, 1826, pp.212 f. ; (4) the. Fables of Bidpai : (dz) Bickell 
and '&Qnity,Kalilag und Dimnag, Leipzig, 1 876, pp. 53 f . ; {b) Keith-Falconer, 
Kalilah and Dimnah, Cambridge, 1885, pp. 170 f. ; (<:) Knatchbull, Kalila 
and Diiiina, Oxford, 181 9, pp. 268 f. ; {d^ Derenbourg, Kalilah et Dimnah, 
Paris, 1 88 1, pp. 144 f. ; (f) John of Capua, Directorium vitae humanae, ed. 
Derenbourg, Paris, 1889, pp. 316 f.; (/") Eastwick, The Anvar-i Suhaili, 
Hertford, 1854, pp. 409 f. ; (5) the Kathd-Sarit-Sagara, Tawney, Calcutta, 
1884, 1 1, pp. 90 f. (the same version appears in Chambers and Jones's Asiatic 
Miscellany, Calcutta, 1787, pp. 73 f., where it is said to be translated from the 
Ayar Danish of Abulfazel) ; (6) the Hitopadesa, E. Lancereau, Paris, 1882, 
pp. 267 f. ; (7) the Alakesa Kathd, see Clouston, A Group of Eastern 
Romances, Glasgow, 1889, pp. 211 f . ; (8) Baldo, Alter Esopus, ed. E. du 
Meril, Poesies inedites du moyen Age, Paris, 1854, pp. 240 f. ; (9) Etienne 
de Bourbon, Anecdotes historiques, ed. Lecoy de la Marche, Paris, 1877, 
pp. 325 f. ; (10) Legrand d'Aussy, Fabliaux on Contes, 3d ed., Paris, 1829, 
III, pp. 354 f.; (11) Gesta Ro7nanorum, Herrtage, E.E.T.S., Ex. Sen, 
XXXIII, pp. 98 f., London, 1879 (Madden, London, 1838, pp. 85 f.);^ 
(12) Sansovino, Cento Novelle Scelte, Day II, novel 9, Venice, 1561, 
pp. 91 f. (the same in French in Les Facetievses iovrnees by G. C. D[e] 
T[ours], Day IX, novel i, Paris, 1584, pp. 287 f.); (13) H. W. Kirchhof, 
Wendunmuth, Bk. VII, No. 109, ed. Oesterley, Tiibingen, 1879, ^^i P- 3^^ '■> 
(14) R. L'Estrange, Fables of uEsop, No. cccclxiv, London, 1692, 
p. 439 ; (15) J. Pauli, Schimpfund Erttst, No. 257, ed. Oesterley, Stuttgart, 
1866, pp. 169 f. ; (16) Arthur and Gorlagon, Kittredge, \n Studies and Notes 

1 A natural addition and in no way influenced, I believe, by the eagle of the 
Dolopathos. 

2 Not in any of the published versions of the continental Gesta RoDiaiiormn. 



Ixxx ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

in Philology and Literature^ VIII, pp. 157 f.; (17) an Irish story under 
various titles, J. Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland, London, 1894, p. 332 (see 
Kittredge, as above, pp. 166, 274, for eiglit other versions of this story); 
(18) a Welsh tradition^ first reported by E. Jones, Musical Relics of the 
Welsh Bards, London, 1794, p. IS > ^'^o, with unimportant variations, in 
(«) lolo Manuscripts, ed. Williams and Williams for the Welsh MSS. 
Society, Llandovery, 1848, p. 561, {b) a Glasnys version reported by D. E. 
Jenkins, Bedd Gelert, its Facts, Fancies, and Folk-Lore, Portmadoc, 1899, 
pp. 58 f., and (<:) W. R. Spencer's poem, " Beth Gelert, or The Grave of 
the Greyhound," Poems, London, 1835, PP- ^5° f- 5^ (19) ^ Russian popular 
story, J. Vogl, Die dltesten Volksindrchen der Russen, Vienna, 1841, 
pp. 93 f. ; (20) a Malay story, W. E. Maxwell, fourtial of the Straits 
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Singapore, 1881, No. VII, p. 23; 
(21) a Mongolian story, B. Bergmann, Nomadische Streifereien, Riga, 1804, 
Pt. I, pp. 103 f. ; (22) a Cinghalese story, H. A. Pieris, Orientalist, Kandy, 
1884, I, p. 213 (also in Panjab Notes and Queries, Allahabad, 1886, III, 
pp. 148 f.); (23) a Greek story, J. G. von Hahn, Griechische und albane- 
sische Mdrchen, Leipzig, 1864, I, pp. 207 f. ; (24) an Indian story, Past 
Days in India, by " a late customs' officer," London, 1874, pp. 92 f. ; 
(25) Mark Twain, A Dog's Story, in Harper'' s Monthly Magazine, 1904, 
CVIII, p. 16 ; (26) *3 Lonnrot, Om det nord tschudiska spraket, Helsing- 
fors, 1853, p. 30 (cited by Benfey, Pantschatantra, II, p. 483). 

Stories of the same genre as canis, but not closely analogous to it, are 
to be found in 

(27) Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmdrchen, No. 48, 9th ed., Berlin, 1870, 
pp. 188 f. ; (28) Panjab Notes and Queries, Allahabad, 1886, III, pp. 94 f. 
(also, with slight variations, in Clouston's A Group of Eastern Romances, 
Glasgow, 1889, pp. 206 f., J. H. Knowles's Folk-Tales of Kashmir, Lon- 
don, 1888, pp. 42 f., and R. Burton's Sind Revisited, London, 1877, 
II> PP- 303 f-)' (-9) ^- R^^rna Ayen, Vier Geheimrath-Minister, Ham- 
burg, 1855, pp. 32 f.; (30) Pesikta des Rab Kahatta, ed. S. Buber, tr. 

1 Ca7iis has been localized in Wales, at Bedd Gelert, where the dog's grave is 
still shown ; also in Greece (according to the first of the variants mentioned), in 
France (according to the 9th variant), and at several places in India (according 
to the 27th variant). 

2 See also F. O. Ticknor's, Gelert in The Poems of Tickiior, Philadelphia, 1879, 
p. 98. 

2 I indicate by an asterisk all analogues cited which I have not been able to 
verify. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES Ixxxi 

A. Wiinsche, Leipzig, 1885, p. 102 ; and (31) Thomas Howard, The Seven 
Wise Mistresses of Rotne (example of the second mistress), London, no 
date. 

In I the protecting animal is a serpent; in 2, 3/', 5, 7, 22, and 23 
a mongoose ; in 3, 4/, and 6 an ichneumon ; in 4^, 4/^, and a,c a weasel ; 
in 16 and 17 a werewolf; in 20 a bear; in 21 a polecat; in 23 a 
fisher's son. The attacking animal is a wolf in i, 15, and 18 ; a hobgob- 
lin in 16 and 17 (except in the Curtin version) ; a tiger in 20; a dragon 
in 23. In 25 the child is saved by the dog from being burned to death. 
In 3, 4, 5, 6 (as in the Book of Sindibad) the child had been left 
in the care of his father; 14, 15, 18, and 20 make no mention of the 
mother. Only seven versions reproduce the nurse feature: 9, 10, 11, 
12,13,19,25; and in 9, 12, 13, and 25 there is only one nurse. 11 and 

19 are derived from H, which they track pretty closely. 10 also had its 
basis in some version of The Seven Sages of Rome, probably K. 1 4 
and 15 are so much condensed that their source can hardly be traced. 
In I the dart which kills the snake (here the protecting animal) also 
kills the child. In 16 and 17 (except for the Curtin version) a hand is 
reached down a chimney in an effort to steal the child ; this hand is 
bitten off by the werewolf and laid in the cradle beside the child. In 

20 the child flees for safety into a jungle, whence it emerges only 
after the father's return and after his discovery of the carcass of the 
tiger. In 23 the snake stings the child on the neck and then makes his 
escape, the mongoose, which had been tied near by, having been unable 
to protect the child. After the cobra has got away, however, the mon- 
goose manages to bite the string in two, and forthwith hastens to the 
jungle in search of some snakeroot. Returning, it is killed by the 
mother, who later discovers the snakeroot, applies it to the child's neck, 
and thus saves its life. In 23 the fisher's son, having been accused by 
the queen of slaying the prince, dies of remorse, and is changed into 
marble ; the princess then, in the course of three years, weeps a dishful 
of tears, which she pours over the marble form of the fisher's son, and 
he is restored to life. 25, the most modern redaction of the story, runs 
briefly as follows : A child is left one day by its nurse asleep in its crib 
in the nursery. The pet dog of the family is also in the room, asleep 
on a bed. A spark from the fireplace lights on the gauze covering of 
the baby's crib and sets it afire. The baby awakes, and screams. The 



Ixxxii ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

dog, thus aroused, snatches the child from the cradle, and rushes with 
it from the room and around a bend in the hall. Here he meets his 
master, who, mistaking the situation, begins to beat him, and would 
have killed him, but is interrupted by the nurse, who has meantime 
discovered the fire. 

None of the last five analogues (27-31) reflect canis very faithfully. 
In 2 7 dog, child and wolf all appear, but the dog, an old and worthless 
creature, protects the child from the wolf in accordance with a former 
agreement between the two, the dog's purpose being to prevent his 
master's carrying out a threat to kill him. In 28 a poor man owes a 
debt, and having nothing wherewith to pay it, gives up his dog. The 
dog protects his new master's property so faithfully that he holds the 
debt to be canceled and sends the animal back to his former master. 
The latter meets the dog on the way, and, jumping to the conclusion 
that he has proved unfaithful, straightway takes his life. 29 is a variant 
of 28; the dog here, however, cancels his former master's debt by 
killing the paramour of his new master's wife. 30, a commentary on 
Proverbs, xvi. 7, is briefly as follows: Some shepherds, having milked 
their flocks, leave the milk in the care of a dog ; a serpent comes and hcks 
up some of the milk from the bucket. When the shepherds return and 
are about to drink the milk, the dog falls to barking, but they do not 
understand its significance. The dog then drinks some of the milk, and 
dies. 31 tells of a pet lion which, after killing a wild boar that was 
about to kill its mistress's father, is himself killed by a steward who 
has misinterpreted his action in killing the boar. 

3. Aper. — In both the Book of Sindibad and The Seven Sages of 
Ro?ne} 

The Eastern and the Western versions of ape?- do not differ mate- 
rially. The most striking variation is in the manner in which the boar 
meets his death ; in the Western versions he is invariably slain by the 
shepherd ; in the Eastern versions, however, he dies either in conse- 
quence of holding his head back too long in expectation of more 
fruit, or, as in the Sindibad-7iameh, in consequence of rushing too vio- 
lently upon the trunk of the tree in which his intended victim has 
taken refuge. Another noteworthy variation is the employment by all 

1 It appears in all versions of The Seven Sages of Rome, and in all versions of 
the Book of Sindibad e.xce.^t the Seven Vezirs and the Nachshebi version. It is 
not in the Dolopathos. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES Ixxxiii 

the Eastern versions save the Mischle Sindbad of a monkey in the place 
of the shepherd of other versions. Slight variations exhibited by the 
Western variations are the substitution by the Middle English versions 
(except D, F, and As) of a haw tree for the fig tree, and the addition by 
H of a motive for the shepherd's venturing into the forest, in that the 
emperor of the land had offered his daughter and his throne to any one 
who would slay the boar.^ 

More or less distant analogues of aper appear in 

(i) J. Vogl, Die a lies ten Volksmdrchen der Riisse7i, Vienna, 1841, 
pp. 137 f ; (2) J. G. von Hahn, Griechische nnd albattesische Mdrchen, I, 
P- 153; (3) (d) Eastwick, The Anvar-i Suliaili, pp. 526 f., (<5) Le Cabi- 
net des Fe'es, Amsterdam, 1785, XVIII, pp. 26 f. ; (4) the Suvisiimdra 
Jataka (No. 208); The Jataka, W. H. D. Rouse, Cambridge, 1895, II, 
pp. no f. ; (5) Pantschataiitra, Bk. IV, No. i : {a) Benfey, II, pp. 285 f., 
Schmidt, pp. 2^2 i.; (d) Dubois, pp. 184 f. ; (6) the Fables of Bid- 
pai^ : {a) Bickell and Benfey, pp. 48 f. ; ((5) Keith-Falconer, pp. 158 f. ; 
(^) Knatchbull, pp. 258 f. ; {d) Derenbourg (the Hebrew version), 
pp. 127 f. ; ie) Derenbourg (the Latin version), pp. '203 f. ; (/") Eastwick, 
pp. 371 f . ; (^) Le Cabinet des Fees, XVIII, pp. 2f.^; (7) the Katha- 
Sarit-Sdgara, Tawney, II, pp. 84 f. ; (8) the Ctikasaptati, story 64, 
R. Schmidt, Leipzig, 1893, pp. 139 f.; (9) the Mahdvastu Avaddna, tr. 
Rajendralala Mitra, The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal, Calcutta, 
1882, p. 138; (10) a poem by " Bruder Werner," Minnesinger, ed. 
F. H. von der Hagen, Leipzig, 1838, III, p. 16; (11) a modern Russian 
story reported by Rouse, The fataka, II, p. no, note i; (12) a Japanese 
story retold by W. E. Griffis, fapanese Fairy World, Schenectady, N.Y., 
1880, pp. 144 f.; (13) *Cariyd-Pitaka, III, 7*; (14) *Markata-jdtaka, 
Mahavastu II, 208.* 

The first of the analogues cited is evidently patterned after apcr as 
according to H, for it reproduces the offer of daughter and crown to the 
one who shall kill the boar. But it also makes some interesting varia- 
tions ; for instance, it has instead of the fig tree of the usual version a 

1 Perhaps borrowed from vaticiniiim, though in any case a natural variation. 

- For fuller bibliographical information concerning the Pantschatantra and the 
various Bidpai redactions, see analogues 3 and 4 of canis. 

^ It will be observed that the Anvdr-i Stthaili and Le Cabinet des Fees each 
contain two versions of aper, both that of the Book of Sindibdd and that which 
appears normally in other Bidpai collections. 

* Cited by Rouse, The Jataka, p. no, note i. 



Ixxxiv ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

pear tree, in which there is a grapevine which supphes the shepherd 
with fruit; the boar, after eating his fill of the grapes, falls asleep with- 
out the usual stimulus of the shepherd's scratching ; the shepherd then 
beheads him with an ax. The second analogue resembles most the 
version found in the Sindilmd-nameh, but doubtless owes nothing to it. 
It has to do with a boy who, having been chased up a tree, falls out of 
the tree in consequence of the boar's violent gnawing at its roots ; the 
boar then rushes headlong at the boy, but, missing him, comes upon 
the tree with such force that he strikes his tusks clear through it and 
dies. 3(^z and 3/^ tell the story as according to the Book of Sindibad, 
except that they report that the boar comes to his death in consequence 
of an attempt to climb the tree. The remaining analogues are but 
distant ones, and may never have had any real connection with aper 
or its original. They have to do with a monkey that escapes by his 
presence of mind from some hostile animal • — a tortoise, a crocodile, 
a whale, or some other sea animal. This animal is at first a friend of the 
monkey, but later, at the instigation of his wife, who is very jealous, tries 
to do him mortal injury. The wife feigns illness as an excuse for request- 
ing of her husband the heart of the monkey, which, she holds, is the 
only remedy for her ailment. This animal is transporting the monkey 
on his back to the home of the wife, when the monkey, learning of his 
former friend's sinister intent, announces that he has left his heart on a 
limb of the tree in which he lives (or, as with 5/;, he has a presentiment 
that the wife is convalescent), and so he is permitted to return to his 
home ; after which he stoutly refuses to leave again. 1 1 substitutes a 
fox for the monkey, a whale for the crocodile, the king of fishes for the 
crocodile's wife. In 12 both monkey and tortoise appear, but the 
queen of the fishes takes the place of the monkey's wife. 

4. Medicus appears only in The Seven Sages of Rome, but the various 
redactors differ considerably in their report of it. D, for instance, makes 
no mention of the barrel feature ; and the Welsh version is silent both 
as to the barrel feature and as to the disease of Hippocrates. In D* 
and K the disease of Hippocrates comes by way of retribution for his 
selfishness in sending his nephew to Hungary rather than go himself. 
The barrel feat is then done only to counteract a popular loss of faith 
in him when it has become apparent that he cannot cure himself. It is 
not until after all this, and just before his death, that he slays his nephew. 
With H the nephew is Galen. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES Ixxxv 

I have found but two variants of medic ii s : (i) Sansovino, Cento 
Novelle Scelte, Day II, novel 4, Venice, 1561, pp. 72 f. (the same in a 
French translation in Les Facetievses iovrnees, by G. C. D[e] T[ours], 
Day X, novel 8, Paris, 1583, folio 348 f.) ; (2) The Forty Vezirs, ed. 
E. J. W. Gibb, London, 1886, pp. 37 f. 

The first of these is based on A*, which it tracks pretty closely. Its 
chief departures from A* are in omitting mention of the di^t (beef and 
water) presented by the nephew for the cure of the prince, and in 
reporting that the father of the prince was a miller. The second variant 
is more distant. It runs briefly as follows : A young prince is very ill, 
and his physicians can do nothing for him. A skillful physician from a 
distance is sent for ; he comes, feels the pulse of the patient, then asks 
for a private consultation with the queen, as in The Sevefi Sages. The 
queen admits that she had at one time made merry with another than 
the king. The physician prescribes a diet of porridge, curds and whey, 
and brewis.^ 

. 5. Gaza.^ — In all versions of the Western group of The Seve?i Sages, 
including the Dolopathos. 

In The Seven Sages proper the story is very simple ; the thief, in order 
to escape detection, employs only one ruse : in order to account for the 
lamentations of the dead man's family he stabs himself in some unvital 
part.^ The Dolopathos version, on the other hand, is very elaborate : the 
thief saves himself first (as in The Seven Sages of Rome^ by stabbing him- 
self ; then — a feature peculiar to the Dolopathos — by asserting that a 
child belonging to the family, which is crying mysteriously, is crying for 
its mother ; later he rescues his father's body by fitting himself out in 
clothes that are white on one side and black on the other, thereby 
deceiving forty guards, half of whom are clad in white, half in black ; 
next he lies with the princess, who puts a black mark on him, but he 

^ Professor Kittredge suggests that there is a faint resemblance to medicus in 
one of Hamlet's adventures at the EngUsh court in Saxo« Grammaticus, ed. 
Holder, Bk. Ill, pp. 93-94. 

2 For literature on gaza see S. Prato, La Leggenda del Tcsoro di Rampsinite, 
Como, 1882; Frazer, Pausaiiias's Description of Greece, V, pp. 176 f.; Clouston, 
Popular Tales and Fictions, II, pp. 115 f . ; Keller, Sept Sages, pp. cxciii f. ; Keller, 
Dyocletiamts Leben, pp. 55 f. ; R. Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, ed. Bolte, Berlin, 
1898, I, pp. 198 f. (also in Orient n. Occident, II, pp. 115 f.) ; A. Schiefner, Bul- 
letin de VAcad. des Sciences de Saint-Petersbonrg, 1870, XIV, cols. 299 f, 

3 The Welsh version omits even this detail, 



Ixxxvi ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

marks similarly others in the palace ; finally he thwarts an attempt to 
detect him by giving to a child, who has singled him out from a number 
of suspects, a bird in exchange for a knife which the child gives him. 
He is rewarded for all his shrewdness by the hand of the princess. 
Besides these variations, which come in the second half of the story, 
the Dolopathos introduces another striking variation at the very begin- 
ning, in relating that the father had been at one time keeper of the 
treasury, and had been driven to steal only in consequence of the son's 
extravagance. 

Variants of gaza are found as follows : 

(i) Herodotus, History^ Bk. 11, § 121, tr. G. C. Macaulay, London, 1890, 
I, pp. 169 f. (the same version, with very slight changes, is told by Bandello, 
Novelle, I, 23, tr. J. Payne, London, 1890, II, pp. 27 £., and by A. Alber- 
tinus, Der teutschen recreation oder Liisthaits, Rottwil, 161 9, pp. 1541.; 
it was the Herodotus version also that inspired Heine's Rhampsinit, — 
see Heinrich Heines sdmtliche Werke, ed. E. Elster, Leipzig, i8go, I, 
pp. 329f.); (2) Pmisanias''s Description of Greece, Bk. IX, chap. 37, ed. 
Frazer, I, pp. 491 f. ; (3) Charax Pergamenus, 'EAAt^viko, Bk. IV, a note 
on Aristophanes, Clouds, 1. 508 (see Mueller, Fragmenta Historicorum 
GrcBcorjim, Paris, 1849, III, p. 637); (4) E. Legrand, Recueil de Contes 
populaires grecs, Paris, 1881, pp. 205 f . ; (5) Th. Noldeke, Zeitschr. d. d. 
tno?g. Gesellsch., 1888, XLII, pp. 68 f. ; (6) Ser Giovanni, Pecorone, 
Day IX, novel i, tr. W. G. Waters, London, 1897, pp. 102 f.^ (the same 
in English in Painter, Palace of Pleasjire, I, No. XLViii, ed. Jacobs, 
London, 1890, II, pp. 8 £.); (7) Sansovino, Cento Novelle Scelte, Day III, 
novel 4, Venice, 1561, pp. 105 £.; (8) VHistoire du Chevalier Berimes, 
Pt. Ill, chap, cxv f., Paris, [1525?]; (9) Pitre, Fiabe, Novelle e Rac- 
conti popolari Siciliani, No. 160, Palermo, 1875, ^^I> PP- 210 f. (for a 
translation of this story see T. F. Crane, Italian Popular Tales, Boston, 
1885, pp. 163 f.); (10) Pitre, I.e., No. 159, III, pp. 205 f . ; (11) C. Coronedi- 
Berti, Novelle popolari bolognesi. No. 2, Bologna, 1864; (12) D. Com- 
paretti, Novelline popolari italiane. No. 13, Torino, 1875, pp. 52 f. ; 
(13) S. Prato, La Lcggenda del Tesoro di Rampsinite, pp. i f. ; (14) Bar- 
toli and Sansoni, Una Novellina e una Poesia popolare Gragnolesi, Fir- 
enze, 1881, pp. 7 f. ; (15) J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West 

^ Joseph Jacobs, in his edition of Painter's Palace of Pleasure, I, p. Ixxvii, 
has conjectured — happily, I think — -that it was upon this version that the play 
Bendo and Richardo, mentioned by Henslowe {Diary, ed. Collier, London, 1845, 
pp. 22, 24, 27) was based ; Bindo and Ricciardo are the names of the architect 
and his son with both Ser Giovanni and Painter. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES Ixxxvii 

Highlands, Edinburgh, i860, I, pp. 330 f. ; (16) F. M. Luzel, Me'liistne, 
Paris, 187S, I, cols. 17 f. (also in Luzel, Contes popiilaires de Basse Bretagne, 
Paris, 1887, III, pp. 351 f.); (17) Luzel, Melusine, I, cols. 23 f. (also in 
Conies pop., Ill, pp. 367 f.); (18) an early Dutch poem, De Deif van 
Brugghe, reprinted by G. W. Dasent, Zeitschr. f. d. Alterth., 1845, V, 
pp. 385 f . ; (19) Etlar, Eventyr og Folkesagen fra Jylland, Copenhagen, 
1847, p. 165 (see for a summary, Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, 
p. 139); (20) J. W. Wolf, Detitsche Hausmdrchen, Gdttingen, 185 1, 
pp. 400 f . ; (21) H. Prohle, Mdrchen fiir die Jugend, No. 38, Halle, 1854 
(see for a summary, Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, ed. Bolte, I, p. 208); 
(22) A. von Platen, Der Schatz des Rhainpsinit, Platen's Gesammelte 
Werke, Stuttgart, [1869], II, pp. if.; (23) I. and J. Zingerle, Kinder- 
und Hausmdrchen ans Siiddetitschlatid, Regensburg, 1854, pp. 300 f. ; 
(24) A. Schiefner, Bullelin de V Acad. Imperiale des Sciences de Saint- 
Petersboiirg, 1870, XIV, cols. 314 f.; (25) L. Leger, Melusine, 1878, I, 
cols. 136 f. ; (26) W. R. S. Ralston, Tibetan Tales, London, 1882, pp. 37 f. ; 

(27) M. Lidzbarski, Geschichten ujid Lieder aus den nett-aramdischen 
Handschriften der Konigl. Bibliothek zu Berlin, Weimar, 1896, pp. 241 f . ; 

(28) W. Radloff, Proben der Volkslit. der tiirkischen Stdinme Siid-Sibe- 
riens, St. Petersburg, 1872, IV, pp. 193 f.; (29) W. Goonetilleke, The 
Orientalist, Kandy, 1884, I, pp. 56 f. (an account of a Cinghalese version); 
(30) Prym and Socin, Der neu-aranidische Dialekt des Tiir ^Abdin, Got- 
tingen, 1881, Pt. II, pp. 170 f.; (31) J. Riviere, Contes populaires de la 
Kabylie, Paris, 1882, pp. 13 f. ; (32) M. Wardrop, Georgian Folk Tales, 
London, 1894, pp. 89 f. ; (33) Dozon, Contes albanais. No. 15, Paris, 1881, 
pp. I24f. ; (34) Socin and Stumme, Ahhandlungen der pliil. -hist. Classe 
der konigl. sdchsischen Gesellsch. der Wissenschaften, Leipzig, 1895, XV, 
pp. 107 f.; (35) F. Liebrecht, Jahrb. f. roni. u. engl. Lit., 1870, XI, 
pp. 367 f. ; (36) A. von Suttner, Das Magazin fiir die Lit. des In- und 
Auslandes, Leipzig, 1883, XIV, pp. 541 f . ; (37) V. Largeau, Flore Saha- 
rienne, Geneva, 1879, PP- 28 f. ; (38) Katha-Sarit-Sagara, ed. Tawney, II, 
pp. 93 f. ; (39) *Hans Sachs, a Meisterlied of December 20, 1540, in the 
Erlanger MS. No. 1668, folio 358t> (see Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, I, 
p. 207, note); (40) *a Danish version, mention of which is made by Prato, 
p. 52, on the authority of C. Nyrop ; (41) * three unpublished Portuguese 
variants in the collection of Z. Consiglieri Pedroso (according to Prato, 
p. 23, who cites Pedroso, Ensaios Criticos, Porto, 1881, III, p. 5). 

Stories related, perhaps, to gaza, but obviously not closely related, are 
reported by 

Radloff, Proben d. Volkslit. d. tiirk. Stdnime Siid-Siberiens, III, 
pp. 332 f. ; E. Cosquin, Romania, 1881, X, pp. 162 f. (several stories of 



Ixxxviii ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

the gaza type, with discussion of them) ; Leskien and Brugmann, Litoii- 
ische Volkslieder und Mdrchen, Strassburg, 1882, pp. 480 f. ; M. Drago- 
manov, Revue des Traditions populaires, Paris, 1895, X, pp. 204 f. ; 
Straparola, Nights, I, 2, tr. W. G. Waters, London, 1894, II, pp. 115 f.: 
Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, II, pp. 143 f. and 480 f. (summaries 
of a Mongolian and an Egyptian story); Lai Behari Day, Folk Tales of 
Bengal, London, 1883, pp. 160 f. 

Only one of the variants mentioned, that of Sansovino (7), tells the 
story in its simpler form as found in The Seven Sages of Rotne. This 
version must have been derived from The Seveti Sages of Rofne, since it 
differs from it in only one minor detail : in that the son stabs his mother 
rather than himself. All the other variants, I believe, go back, either 
directly or through some other medium than The Sevefi Sages proper, 
to the version of Herodotus (i). They are, accordingly, with only one 
or two exceptions, fuller than is the version of The Seven Sages of Rome. 
The expansion comes in, in part, at the beginning, where other feats of 
roguery, performed by the robber before breaking into the king's 
treasury, are detailed ; but the chief expansion always comes with the 
second half of the story. The ruses employed by the thief to escape 
detection afford opportunity for almost endless elaboration, and the 
story-teller has in many cases taken liberal advantage of this opportunity. 

In 6, 8, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, as in The Seven Sages of Rome, 
the robber cuts himself so as to explain the conduct of the dead robber's 
wife or other relative. In 16 he stabs his sister; in 29 he falls down a 
tree ; in 36 he throws a child of the dead robber into the fire. In 4, 5, 
12, 28, 32, 35, 37 the wife (or other relative), in order to account for 
her emotion on witnessing the headless corpse exposed on the streets of 
the city, lets fall and breaks an earthenware vessel (jar, goblet, bottle, 
or the like) which she is carrying, — this, I should add, at the sugges- 
tion of the youthful robber. In i, 5, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 
22, 23, 25, 28, 32, 38 the robber intoxicates (or drugs) the guards that 
have been set to watch the headless body, then steals the body away 
from them and gives it burial ; in 27 and 30 he sings the guards to sleep. 
In 18, after intoxicating the guards, he dresses them up in monks' 
clothes. In 9, 16, 34 he frightens the guards away from the body by 
means of a flock of goats to whose heads he has attached pots contain- 
ing candles. In 4, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 35 he steals some money that has 
been scattered (or otherwise exposed) by the king; in 34 he steals a 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES Ixxxix 

golden bowl; in i6, the king's crown. In 4, 6, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 31, 
32, 34 he steals some animal (camel, goat, gazelle, stag, hind, calf, pig, 
or ostrich) belonging to the king. The king sends out beggars to ask 
for a piece of this animal's flesh, hoping thereby to detect the thief ; the 
mother (or other kinsman of the murdered man) stupidly gives one of 
these beggars a piece of the fresh meat; in 6, 9, 25, 27, 31, 32 the 
young thief kills the beggar ; in 4, 23, 34, 35 he discovers that the beg- 
gar has marked his house, and so he marks other houses. In 6, 8, 18, 
28 he lies with the princess, and she sets a black mark on him, but he 
marks similarly others in the palace ; in 25, 31, 34, 36 the princess clips 
oR a bit of his beard or his mustache, and he does the same for others ^ ; 
in 12 she cuts off a piece of his garment. In 4, 22, 28, 35, 37 the 
young robber escapes from the princess by leaving with her the hand of 
the murdered robber. In 15, 26, 36, as in the Dolopathos, he is 
detected by a child, who gives him an apple or a knife ; he also gives 
the child some gift, and then contends that this was the motive of the 
child's gift to him. In 28 a camel with extraordinary divining powers 
kneels before his door ; his house is then marked, but he marks similarly 
other houses. In 32 a hind detects him in like fashion, and he kills it. 
In 1 2 he exposes a man of straw at the window of the king's bedroom, 
and thus draws the king out of the palace, after which he enters and 
steals a sheet from the latter's bed. 

In 4, 5, 25, 26, 27, 30, 35, 36, 37 the thieves are uncle and nephew; 
in I, 2, 22, 28, 31, 38 they are brothers ; in 10, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 
23, 33 they are not related to each other; in the remaining versions 
they are father and son, as in the Dolopathos and The Seven Sages of 
Rome. In 6, 17, 18, as in the Dolopathos, the hole through which the 
robber had entered the treasury is discovered by burning some green 
straw in the building and then noting how the smoke makes its escape ; 
in 31, 34, 35 the hole is discovered by sealing up the treasury and then 
observing how any light is admitted to the building. In 4, 5, 12, 17, 18, 
23, 25, 29, 34 these means of discovering the opening in the well are 
recommended by some old man, generally a robber. In 25 father and 
son enter the king's larder by way of a tunnel; the father eats so much 
that he is unable to make his way out, and the son beheads him. In 36 

1 There is a similar motif in Boccaccio's Decaineroit, Day III, novel 2 ; see 
Landau, Quellett des Dekameron, 2d ed., pp. 70 f. See also Liebrecht's note on 
this story in Dunlop's Histo7y of Fiction, ed. Wilson, London, 1896, II, pp. 80 £. 



xc ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

both nephew and uncle fall into the pitch, but the son manages to extri- 
cate himself. In 33 twelve robbers break into the king's stable ; the 
master thief (a boy), who has been set to watch at the door, raises a hue 
and cry, and beheads the robbers one by one as they come out. In i , 
4, 6, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, ss, 34, 35, 36 
the young thief ultimately marries the princess. 

6. Puteus.^ — In all versions of T/ie Seven Sages of Rome except the 
Italian prose version edited by Varnhagen ; also in the Dolopathos, but 
in a condensed form ; not in the Book of Sindibad. 

In the Dolopathos, piiteus is appended, incongruously enough, to 
inclusa, — the wife who has figured in iiidusa becoming once again, in 
the appended story, the object of a husband's jealousy, and being locked 
in prison by this second husband as in ifichisa. All mention of the cur- 
few law is omitted in the Dolopathos, and so also with the punishment 
which, in conformity to this law, was meted out to the husband. The 
wife admits her husband late in the night after he has promised never 
to lock her up again ; and on the next day he orders the tower to be 
torn down. D falls in with the Dolopathos — quite by accident, of 
course — in omitting mention of the curfew law. In L and D the wife, 
when overtaken in her infidelity, pleads that she had left the house 
because of illness ; in H, because her mother, who was very ill, had sent 
for her. Another variation made by H is the wife's making her last will 
and testament before dropping the stone into the well. In D the hus- 
band tells the watchman that he had left his chamber because he heard 
outside a pet spaniel that had been missing. In D* and K the husband, 
after his untoward adventures, falls sick and dies. 

Variants or derivates of piiteus are to be found as follows : 

(i) Ctckasaptati, story 16, tr. R. Schmidt, Leipzig, 1.893, pp. 107 f.; 
(2) Petrus Alphonsus, Disciplina Clericalis, No. 15, ed. F. W. V. Schmidt, 
Berlin, 1827, pp. 53 f. (the same in French, Le Castoiement d''un Pete a. 
son Fits, No. 12, ed. M. Roesle, Munich, 1899, pp. 24 f. ; also, in a free 
paraphrase, in An Alphabet of Tales, No. Dxxxviii, ed. M. M. Banks, 
London, 1905, II, pp. 362 f. \_E. E. T. S., CXXVII]); (3) Adolphus, 
Fables, No. vi, P. Leyser, Historia Poetaruni et Poemattuii tnedii Aevi, 
Halle, 1721, pp. 2018 f. (error for 1118); (4) Legrand d.''Au?,?,y, Fabliaux 

1 See Keller, Sept Sages, pp. clxxxix f. ; Oesterley, Patilis Schimpf iind Ernst, 
pp. 549 f. , Clouston, Book of Sindibad, p. 333 ; and Landau, Qitellen des Deka- 
tneron, 2d ed., pp. 79, 92, 262 f. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES xci 

ou Cotites, 3d ed., Paris, 1829, III, pp. 146 f. ; (5) Hans Sachs, Das Weib 
ini Brunne7t, ed. Keller, Stuttgart, 1875, IX, pp. 96!.; (6) Boccaccio, 
Decameron^ Day VII, novel 4; (7) Hugo von Trimberg, Der Renner, 
Frankfurt-am-Main, 1549, p. 66a; (8) Moliere, George Danditt, 1668 (the 
same in English, with slight additions and entire change of names, in Bet- 
terton's The Amorous Widow; or Wanton Wife j and in the condensed 
form of this play, Barnaby Brittle ; or, A Wife at her Wifs End; a 
farce, London, 1782); (9) a Sussex tradition recorded as an authentic 
story in a newspaper and thence reported by S. Baring-Gould, Curious 
Myths of the Middle Ages, new ed., pp. 143 f. ; (10) * Von eynem bozen 
wybe, in MS. 1279 of Leipzig University Library (see Keller, Sept Sages, 
p. cxcii); (11) * H. Zschorke, Peter Rothbart, a play (see Keller, p. cxciii).^ 

It is probable that most, if not all, of these variants were ultimately 
derived from The Seven Sages of Rome, from which they differ materi- 
ally only in that they omit mention of the curfew law. Moliere (8) 
introduces a slight variation, in that the wife, instead of throwing a stone 
into the well, threatens to stab herself to death. With the Sussex ver- 
sion (9) she throws a log in the well ; she had been teaing and gossiping 
at a neighbor's. With i, 2, 4, 5, 8 the parents or some close kinsmen 
of the wife are called on to witness the infamy of the husband after he 
has been locked out. With Boccaccio (6) the wife's friends come to 
her aid and give the husband a beating. With Hans Sachs (5) the hus- 
band had been out carousing, and had returned home late ; it was still 
later, after the husband had been put to bed, that the wife went out to 
meet her paramour. 

7. Senescalcus. — In all versions of The Seven Sages, whether Eastern 
or Western, except the Habicht text of the SeveJi Vezirs, the version of 
Nachshebl, the Dolopathos, the " Versio Italica " (I), and the Middle 
English manuscript F. 

In the Book of Sindibad the story shows the following variations from 
the typical form in The Seven Sages of Rome: the part of the seneschal 
is taken by a bath man ; it is the wife who is spokesman when the hus- 
band returns in the morning to protest that it is time for her to return 

1 Pauli's story cited by Oesterley (Schimpf unci Ernst, p. 375) as a variant of 
pjiteiis seems to me to be very distantly related to it, if at all ; so with Dunlop's 
proposed analogue, Cardinal Bibbiena's La Calattdn'a {History of Fiction, ed. 
Wilson, II, p. 112). Dunlop's citation of " one of Dancourt's plays " as an analogue 
(p. 112) I have been unable to verify. 



xcii ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

home ; no mention is made of the prince's banishing the husband ; 
the husband either hangs himself or dies of sorrow. The Western 
versions exhibit more numerous variations, but the only version that 
alters the story radically is the Welsh, which condenses it to about 
ten lines. With D* and H the seneschal acts as leech ; with K a leech 
is called in, but, since he cannot effect a cure, the seneschal is resorted 
to. With D* the seneschal requires the king to remain in his chamber 
for seven weeks. The reward offered by the king ranges from nine 
marks in the Welsh version to one thousand florins in H. With L, when 
the seneschal returns in the morning, he reminds the king that there 
had been an understanding that the woman he had procured should 
leave without having her identity known to any one. In all versions 
except D* and K the king threatens to have the steward put to death 
unless he leave the country before sunset. 

Of variants of senescalcus there are happily but few. I know of only 
three : (i) Gower, Confessio Amantis, Bk. V, 11. 2643-2825, ed. G. C. 
Macaulay, London, 1901, II, pp. 19 f. {E. E. T. S., Ex. Ser., LXXXII) ; 
(2) Hitopadesa, Bk. I, Nos. 8 and 9, tr. E. Lancereau, Paris, 1852, 
pp. 78 f. ; (3) Masuccio, Novellino, No. xv, tr. W. G. Waters, London, 
1895, I, pp. 2231.1 

The Gower version is clearly based on some version of The Seven 
Sages of Rome, — Macaulay (II, p. 496) thinks on L.^ The Sanskrit 
analogue (2) is perhaps related to senescalcus, but is free. The story is 
briefly as follows : A prince, having fallen in love with the wife of a 
merchant's son, finds his love returned, but the wife nevertheless 
remains deaf to all dishonorable proposals. The prince takes the hus- 
band into his employ. Soon afterward he cornmissions the husband to 
procure a woman for his enjoyment, which the latter does ; the prince 
gives her money, but does not defile her. The husband, inspired by 
this with confidence and carried away by cupidity, takes his wife to 
the prince the next time he is commissioned to find a woman. The 
prince enjoys her carnally, and the husband is filled with regret. The 
version of Masuccio (3) is also free. Here a cardinal bribes a penurious 

1 The two stories in the Decameron (Day III, novel 5, and Day II, novel 10) 
mentioned by Landau {Quellen des Dekameron, 2d ed., p. 86) as analogues, are 
too remotely analogous to be included in this list. 

2 Though in omitting mention of the diet of bread and water it associates itself 
with D, 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES xciii 

husband to allow his wife to spend the night with him. The hus- 
band comes for his wife before day the next morning ; the wife gives 
him the money that had been agreed on between him and the cardinal, 
and refuses to return to him. In neither the Italian nor the Sanskrit 
story is mention made of the prince's (or cardinal's) disease ; both are 
silent also as to any punishment meted out to the husband. 

8. Tentamina.^ — Only in The Seven Sages of Rome. 

There are numerous slight variations. K, D*, and the Welsh version 
omit mention of the second marriage, and H and D of both first and 
second. With K the wife first has an opportunity to relate her woes to 
her mother on the occasion of an annual feast ; with L and the Welsh 
version she meets her mother first after the expiration of one year of 
her married life. With L, D*, and K the mother merely proposes that 
the husband shall be tested, the wife contriving the tests. With L, H, 
and K the tree is cut down while the husband is hunting ; with these 
versions, also, the wife first orders the gardener to cut down the tree, 
but when he demurs, takes the ax and hews it down herself. With H the 
wife kills the dog by throwing it against the wall of their chamber ; the 
dog had offended the wife by jumping on her bed. With F an additional 
test — the killing of the husband's hawk — is inserted after the second 
test. With D* and K the priest of whom the wife is enamored is called 
Guillaicme. The excuse the wife gives to her lord for leaving the table 
on the occasion of the third test is, with L, that she wished to get his 
knife and his chessboard ; with H, to get her own knife ; with F, to 
bring some wine. With D the wife is bled on the night of the feast 
after all the guests have left ; instead of the barber a brother aids the 
husband. L, D*, K, and D omit the mother's bit of counsel with which 
Y, H, and the Welsh version conclude. 

Derivates from tejttamhia are found in 

(i) Legrand d'Aussy, Fabliaux on Contes, 3d ed., Ill, pp. 165 f. ; (2) 
Les Faveurs et les Disgraces de FAmotir ou les Amafis heureux. La Haye, 
1 72 1, II, pp. 209 f. (the same in German in E. von Billow's Novelleiibtich, 
Leipzig, 1836, III, pp. 428 f.) ; and (3) Bonaventure des Periers, Les Contes 
ou les nouvelles Recreations et joyoux Dei'is, No. cxxvii, see " Pantheon 
Litt.", Vieux Coftteurs fr., ed. P. L. Jacob, Paris, 1841, pp. 299 f. Keller, 

1 See Clouston, Book of Sindibdd, p. 337 ; Keller, Sept Sages, pp. ccif. ; Keller, 

Dyocletianiis Ld'cii, pp. 56 f. 



xciv ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

\nh.\s Dyocletianus Leben, p. ^7, also cites (4)* Prevost, Contes, aventures 
etfaits singuliers, Bk. II ; and (5)* Holder, Frattzosische Lesebuch, p. 156.^ 

The first of these variants was derived from L, to which it adheres 
very closely. The second and third go back to H. According to the 
second the tree which the wife cuts down is a laurel. The third 
derivate is somewhat condensed. 

9. Virgilius.^ — Only in The Seve?i Sages of Rome. 

The story falls into two parts : the first (/) telling of the image with 
the bow and arrow ; the other (//) telling of the image with the mirror, 
the Salvatio Romae of Virgilian fable. The most radical variations are 
those of D, the Welsh version, and H. Both D and the Welsh version 
omit / altogether ; H reverses the order of / and //. With H, too 
(under the influence, probably, of the Alexander Neckam version and 
the Gesta Roma?iorum), instead of the image with a mirror we have 
a large figure holding in its hand a golden apple; this figure is sur- 
rounded by as many smaller figures as Rome has provinces, each of 
them having in its hand a bell with which it signals to the central 
figure whenever the province over which it watches rebels. D attributes 
the Salvatio Romae to Merlin. Among minor variations are the fol- 
lowing : the king at the time of the story is Octavius Caesar (H) ; is 
" Gracian " (the Welsh version) ; beneath the image with the bow are 
two fountains, one of cold water, one of warm (H) ^ ; the part of the 
Lombard is played by the archbishop of Carthage (D*, K) ; the part 

1 A distant parallel to te7ita?nttia is also found in Boccaccio, Decatneron, Day 
VII, novel 9. Here Lydia, the wife of Nicostratus, is in love with Pyrrhus. To 
convince Pyrrhus of her love, she first kills her husband's hawk, then sends him 
a lock of her husband's beard, and finally presents him with one of her husband's 
best teeth. 

2 For the most valuable discussion of Virgiliits and its analogues, see Compa- 
retti, Vergil in the Middle Ages, tr. E. F. M. Benecke, London, 1895, pp. 257 f. ; 
Keller, Sept Sages, pp. cciii f. ; Keller, Dyocletiamis Leben, pp. 57 f. ; Clouston, On 
the Magical Elements in Chaucer's " Squire'' s Tale" in Chaucer Society Publications, 
1888-1890, pp. 299 f. ; K. L. Roth, Germania, 1859, IV, pp. 257 f . ; Der Kaiser- 
chronik, ed. H. F. Massmann, Quedlinburg, 1854, III, pp. 421 f. ; E. du Meril, 
Melanges archeol. et lift., Paris, 1850, pp. 425 f. ; Dunlop, History of Prose Fiction, 
ed. Wilson, I, pp. 431 f. ; W. J. Thoms, Early English Prose Romances, 2d ed., 
London, 1858, II, pp. 8 f. ; and Oesterley, Gesta Romanortint, p. 742. 

3 For these fountains, also attributed to Virgil by Vincent of Beauvais, Alex- 
ander Neckam, Burley, Conrad of Querfurt, and others, see Comparetti, pp. 259, 
262, 270, 293, and Massmann, p. 447. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES XCV 

of the king of Apulia, by the king of Hungary (D*, K), or the king of 
Poland (the Welsh version), or merely three kings (H) ; the part of the 
two brothers, by four sages (D*, K), or four knights (H) ; the brothers 
bury their gold under the city gates (L, H), a part of it in a deep ditch, 
the rest at three several crossvvays (D*) ; no mention is made of setting 
the foundations of the tower afire (L, K, H, D) ; instead of melted gold 
in the conclusion to the story powdered gold is used (D).^ 

There appears to be no literary version that combines the two parts 
(/ and //) of the story as in The Seven Sages} 

Parallels to /^ are found as follows : 

(i) Arnold of Liibeck, Chronica Slavorum, Bk. IV, chap. 19 (see Scrip- 
tores reruvi Brunsvicensium, Hanover, 1 710, II, p. 698) ; (2) Heinrich von 
Veldeke, Eneide, 11. 9514!, ed. O. Behaghel, Heilbronn, 1882, pp. 383 f. ; 
(3) Adenet le Roi, Cleomades, 11. 1723 f., ed. A. van Hasselt, Brussels, 1865, 
I> P- 55 5 (4) Virgilius, ed. Thorns, Early English Prose Romances, II, 
pp. 42 f. ; (5) Itnage du Monde, ed. E. du Meril, Melanges archeol. et lilt., 
pp. 457 f. ; (6) C. F. Hock, Gerbert, Vienna, 1837, pp. 163 f. ; (7) William 
of Malmesbury, Chronicle, tr. Giles, London, 1883, pp. I76f. ; (8) Gesta 
Romanoriim, ed. Herrtage, 1879, chap. 3, E. E. T. S., Ex. Ser., XXXIII, 
pp. 7 f . ; ed. Oesterley, chap. 107, pp. 438 f.; (9) Longfellow, Morituri 
Salutantus, 11. 167 f. 

The only one of these which was probably derived from The Seven 
Sages is the third. According to i the bronze statue was situated in 
Naples, and protected the city from Vesuvius; in 2, 3, 4, 5, as in The 
Seven Sages, the arrow was aimed at a fire (or a lamp), which it extin- 
guished when shot off. The last four parallels (6, 7, 8, 9) relate the 
well-known story of the image bearing the inscription, " Hie percute," 
which directed one to a cavern containing another image, which held 
a bow with arrow aimed at a brilliant carbuncle. According to the 
Anglo-Latin version of 7, Diocletian was the emperor in whose reign 
these images were set up. 

1 The story of the death of Crassus as related in The Seven Sages seems to 
have been popular in semi-historical works. Lydgate tells the story {Bochas, Bk. VI, 
chap. V, London, 1527, p. 154^) ; and he also tells a similar story of the death of 
Galba {Boc/ias, Bk. VII, chap, vii, p. 170a). 

2 The nearest approach to a fusion of the two that I have found is the much 
garbled version in von der Hagen's Gesatmntabentetcer, II, pp. 525 f. 

3 See in particular for Virgilius /, Comparetti, pp. 306 f., and Massmann, 
pp. 446, 449 f. 



xcvi ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

Part 11^ of Virgilius has had much wider currency. It occurs as 
follows : 

(i) Gower, Confessio Amantis, Bk. V, 11. 2031-2204, ed. Macaulay, II, 
pp. 3 f. ; (2) Ser Giovanni, Pecorone, Day V, novel i , tr. Waters, pp. 67 f. ; 
(3) Sansovino, Novelle Antiche Scelte, Day V, novel 10, pp. i66bf. (the 
same in French in G. C. D[e] T[ours], Les Facetievses iovrnees, Day VII, 
novel 9, pp. 237b f.) ; (4) Virgilius, ed. Thorns, II, pp. 37 f.; (5) Cleomadh, 
11. 1691 f., ed. van Hasselt, I, p. 54 ; (6) Renars contrefais, as found in MS. 
Bib. du Roi 6985 (see for an extract containing the part having to do with 
Virgil, du Meril, I.e., p. 441) ; (7) a variant found in a Gotha manuscript, 
reported by F. Wiistenfeld, Orient und Occident, I, pp. 331 f . ; (8) Chaucer, 
The Squire's Tale, 11. 132 f.^; (9) Spenser, Faerie Queene, Bk. Ill, canto 
II, stanza 21, Globe ed., p. 165 ; (10) Bede, De septem mundi miraculis, ed. 
J. A. Giles, London, 1843, IV, p. 10; (11) Alexander Neckam, De naturis 
rerum, Bk. II, chap. CLXXiv, ed. T. Wright, London, 1863, pp. 310 f. 
(the same paraphrased in verse, with insignificant changes, in Neckam's 
De laudibus divinae sapientiae. Distich V, 11. 289 f., ed. Wright, p. 447) ; 
(12) Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, Bk. VI, chap, lxi, Venice, 
1494, p. 62a; (13) Fleur des histoires, MS. Bib. du Roi 7635, quoted by 
M. G. Brunet, Le Violier des Histoires romaines, Paris, 1858, p. 130, note; 
(14) Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea, chap. 157, ed. Graesse, Dres- 
den, 1846, p. 718; (15)* Mirabilia 7irbis Rovtae (see Preller, Regiotteti 
der Stadt Rom, Jena, 1846, p. 243) ; (16) MS. Wessobrunn 53, quoted by 
Massmann, I.e., p. 426; (17) Cosmas, see Mai, Spicilegium Romanum, 
Rome, 1839, II, P- 221 ; (18) Gesta Ro7nanorum, ed. Oesterley, chap. 186, 
pp. 590 f. (nqt in the Anglo-Latin version) ; (19) Andrew of Ratisbon, see 
Massmann, I.e., p. 427 ; (20) Libro imperiale. III, 8, quoted from a fifteenth- 
century manuscript by Comparetti, I.e., p. 300, note.^ 

The first four of these appear to have had their origin in The Seven 
Sages of Rome, — probably in A*, surely not in H. The version of 

1 See in particular for Virgilius II, Comparetti, pp. 299 f., 303 £., and Mass- 
mann, pp. 421 f. 

~ It must of course remain an open question whether or not Chaucer's mirror 
owes anything to the Salvatio Romae ; the chances are, I think, that there is no 
connection between the two. The same is true of Merlin's mirror in the Faerie 
Qiteene (9). 

3 For still other parallels see Comparetti, p. 299; Massmann, pp. 424 f.; and 
C. G. Leland, Unpublished Lege^ids of Virgil, New York, 1900, pp. 49 f. For very 
distant analogues sometimes cited as variants, see Gesta Rovianortim, ed. Herrtage, 
chap. I, pp. I f. (not in the Latin version) ; and John Lane, Contijiuation of Chaucer's 
Squire's Tale, ed. F. J. Fumivall, Chaucer Society Publications, 1888, p. 193. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES xcvii 

Gower (i) may have been based on D, with which it agrees in the 
omission of Virgilius I. According to Gower, Hannibal was among 
those who were besieging Rome and who had suffered in consequence 
of the magical power of the mirror. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, tell of a mirror with 
virtues similar to those accredited to the mirror in The Seve?i Sages, 
but none of them tells of the efforts to destroy the mirror, some of 
them indeed (Chaucer among them) merely describing the mirror. 
The remaining variants relate the story of the Salvatio Rojnae, in the 
main, as according to H. 

10. Avis.^ — In all of the regular versions of the Book of Sindibad 
and in all versions of The Seven Sages of Rotne except the Welsh ver- 
sion ^ ; not in the Dolopathos. 

In the Book of Sindibad the bird is a parrot ; the wife is at first 
ignorant as to the means whereby her husband learns of her unfaith- 
fulness, but suspects her maid ; only in the Mischle Sifidbad is mention 
made of going on the house top ; the instruments used to deceive the 
bird are a hand mill (all versions), a mirror (all versions), a taper 
{Sindibad-nameh and Sindba>i\ a sponge {Synfipas), a bellows (Sindi- 
bad-ndmeh), and a grindstone (Sindibad-hameh). With the Hebrew 
version the husband drives the wife away from home as soon as he 
learns of her falseness ; the deception of the parrot (which is allowed 
to accompany the wife) takes place later, at the wife's new lodgings. 
Only in the Seven Vezirs does the husband ever learn of the deception 
practiced on the parrot. 

In the Western form of avis the variations are even more numerous 
than in the Eastern forms. With As the burgess is named Bahin (later 
Annabi/l). With F the wife's paramour is a priest; with D* and K, a 
knight, called Gerard le fih Thierry. With D*, K, and D it is a man- 
servant (or a boy) who assists the wife in befooling the bird. Among 
the means employed to this end are the dropping of small sandstones 
(K, D*, H, As), flashing a candle (D*, Ar), and breaking great blown 

1 See Benfey, Pantschatantra, I, pp. 271 f . ; Clouston, Chaucer Society Publica- 
tions, 1887, 2d ser., No. 22, " Originals and Analogues," Pt. V, No. 20, pp. 437 f. ; 
Clouston, Poptclar Tales and Fictions, II, pp. 196 f. ; Clouston, Book of Sindibad, 
pp. 222 f. ; Keller, Sept Sages, pp. cxxxiv f. ; Keller, Dyocletiattus Leben, p. 45 ; 
Crane, Italian Popular Tales, pp. 167 f . ; Jacobs, Fables of Bidpai, pp. 252 f. 

2 For the story which the Welsh version substitutes for avis, see the note on 
1. 1689. 



XCViii ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

bladders (D). With D* and K the husband puts the wife to death ; with 
B he gives her a beating and sends her to her paramour; with F the 
wife and her paramour put the husband to death. But the most radical 
variations are two additions made by As\ devices employed to protect 
the paramour from the husband, who has in each instance returned 
home sooner than expected. These are abridged and slightly altered 
versions of two well-known stories, usually told separately. According 
to the first of these the paramour saves himself by rushing past the 
husband as he enters, brandishing as he goes a sword, the wife explain- 
ing that he had been chased into the house by three knights who sought 
to take his life. In the second instance the paramour is saved through 
the wiliness of the wife and her mother in holding up a sheet between the 
husband and the paramour long enough to enable the latter to escape.^ 
Variants and analogues of avis occur as follows : 

(i) John of Capua, Directoriutn vitae hujuanae, ed. Derenbourg, 
pp. 89 f. (the same with slight variations in North, Fables of Bidpai, ed. 
Jacobs, pp. 185 f., and Anvdr-i Suhaili, ed. Eastwick, pp. 241 f.); (2) Tiiti- 
ndfueh, ed. C. J. L. Iken, Stuttgart, 1822, pp. 10 f.; ed. G. Small, London, 
1875, pp. 14 f.^; (3) The Forty Vesirs, ed. Gibb, London, 1886, pp. 33 f. ; 
ed. Behrnauer, Leipzig, 1851, pp. 35 f.; (4) The Thousand atid 07ie Nights, 
ed. E. W. Lane, London, 1883, I, pp. 79 f . ; ed. G. Weil, Stuttgart, 1871, 

1 These are reproduced in the note to 1. 2440. 

2 The first of these tales appears in the Book of Sindibdd (all versions : see Com- 
paretti. Book of Sindibdd, p. 25 ; Cassel, Mischle Sindbad, pp. 283 f. ; Clouston, 
Book of Sindibdd, pp. 35 f., 148 f.) ; but, as Varnhagen has pointed out {Engl. Stud., 
XXV, p. 322), the immediate source used by As was probably Petrus Alphonsus, 
Disciplitta Clericalis (or its French derivate), where both stories appear side by side. 
See, for the first of the stories, Clouston, Book of Sindibdd, pp. 22S f . ; Schmidt, 
Disciplina Clericalis, pp. 49 £., 127 f. ; Roesle, Le Castoiement d^un Pire h son Fits, 
pp. 17 f. ; Caxton's Fables of Aesop, ed. Jacobs, London, 1889, II, pp. 279 f. ; von 
der Hagen, Gesainmtabenteiier, II, pp. xxxii f. ; Boccaccio, Decatneron, Day VII, 
novel 6; Schmidt, Qtikasaptati,^"^. 104 f. For the second story see Schmidt, Z'j'j- 
ciplina, pp. 49, 126; Roesle, I.e., p. 16; Oesterley, Gesta Ronianorum, pp. 473, 
732 ; An Alphabet of Tales, No. Dxxxvi, ed. M. M. Banks, II, p. 360 {E. E. T. S., 
CXXVII). 

«* Somewhat analogous also to avis is the framework of the Tuti-ndmeh as a 
whole, according to which a parrot saves his mistress from meeting with a para- 
mour during her husband's absence by entertaining her with stories until the 
husband's return. See Crane, Italian Popular Tales, pp. 168 f., for some Italian 
stories with a framework derived from the Tiitt-ndmeh. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALQGUES xcix 

I, pp. 37 f.; (5) Firenzuola, Discorsi de gH aiiitnali, Venice, 1552, pp. 37b f. 
(the same in French, P, de la Rivey, Deux Livres de Filosojie fabuleuse^ 
Lyon, 1579, p. 143); (6) G. C. D[e] T[ours], Les Facetievses iovrnees, 
Day VII, No. 8, Paris, 1583, folios 236 f. ; (7) Jdtaka, No. 198, The Jataka, 
tr. Rouse, Cambridge, 1895, II, pp. 92 f. (the same abridged and otherwise 
slightly altered \n Jdtaka, No. 145, The Jdtaka^ tr. Chalmers, Cambridge, 
1895, I, pp. 309 f.); (8) John of Capua, Directoriuin, ed. Derenbourg, 
pp. 130 f. ; (9) The Book of the Knight de la Tour Landry, E. E. T S., 
1868, XXXIII, p. 22.1 

Of the foregoing, i, 3, 4, 5, 6 are very near to the Oriental version 
of avis. 5 and 6 appear to have been derived from i. 2, 7, 8, and 9 
are distant analogues. In 2 the bird refrains from telling of the wife's 
misconduct because it would bring about the separation of husband and 
wife ; the husband learns the truth from a stranger. The wife, however, 
suspects the parrot of having betrayed her, and she accordingly pulls 
out all his feathers, then throws him hard against a wall, and leaves 
him for dead. The parrot recovers, and ultimately succeeds in recon- 
ciling husband and wife. 7, one of the Buddhist birth-stories, is a tale 
of two parrots set by a Brahmin to observe the conduct of his wife 
during his absence. The parrots observe the wife's misdoings, and one 
of them calls her to account ; she wrings his neck forthwith. The other 
parrot is silent until the return of the Brahmin ; then he tells him all ; 
after which he flies away to the woods. 8 tells of two birds that had 
been taught to speak a strange language. Certain foreigners who are 
visiting the master of the house tell him that the birds say that his wife 
has committed adultery with the gate keeper. The wife, charged with 
the crime, asserts that the birds know only the words which the for- 
eigners have heard, and that they have been taught these by a slave 
whose advances she had repelled. The husband questions the birds, 
and is satisfied that the wife's story is true. Birds and slave are put 
to death. 9 tells of a magpie that informs its master of his wife's 
misconduct in eating an eel which the master had been saving for some 
friends who were to visit him. The wife wreaks vengeance on the bird 
by plucking all the feathers from its head. 

1 Chaucer's Manciple's Tale is also sometimes cited as a variant of avis, but 
the two are very distantly related if at all. There is, however, an obvious refer- 
ence to avis in the prologue of Tiie Wife of BatJi's Tale, 11. 231 £.; see Skeat's 
note on Cant. Tales, D, 1. 232, and his article in the Academy for April 5, 1890, 
P- 239- 



C ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

1 1 . Sapientes. — Only in The Seven Sages of Rome. 

The chief variations are that of D in suppressing the clerks' search 
for Merlin, and that of the Welsh version in repeating that the king 
declined to follow the counsel of the youth, and hence was ultimately 
slain by the clerks. And there are a number of lesser variations. D* and 
K depart from the usual order in reserving the account of the custom 
instituted by the clerks until just after the king's instructions to them 
to find a cure for his bhndness. With the same versions the king's 
horse always balks at the gates of the city when the king wishes to ride 
thereout. With H the king is blind only when outside his palace. The 
time allowed' the clerks wherein to find a cure for the king's malady is, 
with Ar, E, and B, seven days ; with L, eight days ; with H, ten days ; 
with F, twelve days ; and with K and D*, fifteen days. Neither L nor 
H mentions the old man who tells the clerks about Merlin. D* seems 
to confuse the old man with the man who comes to Merlin to have his 
dream interpreted. Both K and D* have Merlin explain to the clerks 
while on the way to the city the cause of the king's blindness. With L 
Herod shows Merlin much honor in recognition of his services, and 
retains him as his counselor. 

Sapientes was probably invented by the redactor of the parent version 
of The Seven Sages of Rome. There is, to be sure, a very distant 
analogue in the Kalila and Dimna, — the story of King Beladh (see 
KnatchbuU, chap. 14, pp. 314 f.)' ; but I do not believe that there is 
any connection between the two stories. And there is one interesting 
variant, a story told by J. Vogl, Die liltesten Vo/ksmdrchen der Ri/ssen, 
pp. 45 f. This story is based on H, but differs from it in several details. 
The setting of the story is Russian, the king and queen being czar and 
czarina. The stranger's dream is to the effect that he beheld in his 
garden a tree under which were innumerable reptiles, and that shortly 
thereafter his garden was flooded. The sages, to whom he first relates 

1 This story is briefly as follows : King Beladh, having had during one night 
eight visions, calls on certain Brahmins to interpret these visions. They ask 
for seven days' grace in which to consider the matter. At the end of the seven 
days they tell the king that his visions signify that it behooves him to put to 
death a number of his chief advisers and dearest kinspeople. The king, much 
displeased, consults, by the counsel of his wife, a sage by the name of Kibarioun, 
who interprets the visions quite differently and entirely to the king's satisfaction. 
— The story is silent, it will be observed, as to the king's blindness, as to the 
seven springs under his bed, and as to the slaying of his evil counselors. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES ci 

his dream, tell him he must have drunk too freely the night before. 
The dream is then told to a boy (= Merlin), who interprets it correctly. 
The cause of the king's malady is found to be the presence of seven 
reptiles under his bed ; these reptiles vanish as soon as the clerks are 
beheaded, and simultaneously with this the czar regains his sight. 

12. Vidua. ^ — Vidua, though much older than any of the extant 
versions of the Book of Sindibad, first found a place in our collection in 
the Occident, and then only in The Seven Sages of Rome. The story 
as told in the various versions of The Seven Sages is remarkably con- 
stant. As usual, H is somewhat less constant than the rest ; it intensi- 
fies the story by adding to the mutilations normally recorded, first, the 
cutting off of the husband's ears, and then a still greater indignity, for 
which see the note to 1. 3018 ; and it shows a similar fondness for the 
blood-curdling in having the knight, by way of emphatic conclusion to 
the story, strike off the head of the widow with his sword. The Welsh 
version also presents some noteworthy variations ; according to this 
version the husband was the " sheriff of Lesodonia" ; he is buried in a 
church (hence there is no mention of the lodge over his grave) ; the 
mother of the widow is the chief of those who implore the widow to 
leave the tomb of her husband ; the husband's hair is entirely plucked 
from his head in order that he may be bald like the robber (see variants 
6, 18, and 58 below). 

Vidua has had a tremendous vogue. Professor Harry Thurston 
Peck asserts that " no anecdote of the kind has ever had so great a 
vogue "^ ; and Joseph Jacobs goes even farther in asserting in the intro- 
duction to his edition of Caxton's Aesop (I, p. 13) that vidua is "per- 
haps the most popular of all stories." ^ 

1 See for literature E. Grisebach, Die Wanderitng der N'oi'elle von der treiilosen 
Wittive durch die JVeltlitteratur, 2d ed., Berlin, 1889; M. Dacier, " Examen de 
I'histoire de la matrone d'fiphese," Histoires et Alemoires de P Academie Royale 
des Iftscriptions, Paris, 1 780, XLI, pp. 523 f. ; Keller, Sept Sages, pp. clix f. ; Keller, 
Dyocletianus Leben, pp. 49 f. ; A. Cesari, Come pervenne e ritnase in Italia la 
Matrona d''Efeso, Bologna, 1890; Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, ed. Bolte, II, 
pp. 583 f. ; Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, I, pp. 29 f. ; Jacobs, The Fables 
of Aesop, I, pp. 245 f. 2 Trimalchio''s Dinner, New York, 1898, p. 24. 

3 Its early popularity is attested not only by the many early versions of it, but 
also by its reproduction in bas-relief in Nero's palace ; see D. Bardon, Con- 
tumes des anciens peiiples, Paris, 1772, Pt. 8, plate 12, for a facsimile of this bas- 
relief, now lost. Jacobs believes that vidua is also possibly reproduced in the 
Bayeux Tapestry [Fables of Aesop, I, p. 182, note). 



cii ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

Among the derivates and analogues of the story are the following : 

(i) Petronius Arbiter, Safyricon, chap, xiii (the same in John of Salisbury, 
Polycraticus, Bk. VIII, chap, ii [Migne, Patrologiae, Paris, 1855, CXCIX, 
cols. 753 f.], where it is asserted, on the authority of Flavianus, that the events 
of the story actually happened) ^; (2) Phaedrus, A^sop, Appendix XV (per- 
haps by N. Perottus), ed. L. Hervieux, Paris, 1896, p. 72 ; (3) Romulus, 
jEsop, III, 9, ed. L. Hervieux, Les Fabulistes latins, 2d ed., Paris, 1894, 

II, p. 497^; (4) Walter of England, jEsop, No. 48, ed. Hervieux, II, 
pp. 340 f.3; (5) an anonymous Latin poem first edited by T. Wright, A 
Selection of Latin Stories, Percy Society, London, 1842, VIII, p. 156 
(Hervieux, II, p. 738) ; (6) an anonymous Latin prose version preserved in a 
Tours manuscript (No. 205, folio 173), and reported by A. L. de La Marche, 
Anecdotes historiques d''Etienne de Bourbon, Paris, 1877, p. 396, note ; (7) 
Barachijah ha-Nakdan, Mischle Schiialim (see Zunz, Hebraeische Biblio- 
graphie, XIII, pp. 77 f.) ; the same in Latin, M. Hanel, Parabolae Vjilpium, 
Prague, 1661, p. 293 (Grisebach, p. 51); (8) Marie de France, Fables, 
No. XXV, ed. Warnke, Halle, 1898, pp. 85 f . ; (9) an Old French fabliau, 
ed. Montaiglon and Raynaud, Recueil general des Fabliaux, Paris, 1878, 

III, pp. 118 f. ; (10) another Old French fabhau, Dacier, Hist, et Mem. de 
PAcad., Paris, 1780, pp. 535 f. ; (i i) an Old French " Ysopet," ed. Robert, 
Fables inedites, Paris, 1825, pp. 431 f. ; (12) Le Livre de Matheolus, Bk. II, 
No. 3, ed. J. Lefevre, Brussels, 1846, pp. 73 f. ; (13) Jacques de Vitry, 
Exempla, No. ccxxxii, ed. T. F. Crane, London, 1890, pp. 96 f. ; (14) 
E. Deschamps, Poesies Morales, ed. G. A. Crapelet, Paris, 1832, pp. 230 f. ; 

(15) U. Boner, Edelstein, fable 57, ed. F. Pfeiffer, Leipzig, 1844, pp. 96 f. ; 

(16) Gerhard von Minden, Die Fabeln, etc.. No. 51, ed. A. Leitzmann, 
Halle, 1898, pp. 61 f . ; (17) a fable erroneously attributed to Gerhard von 
Minden, ed. W. Seelmann, Gerhard von Minden: Fabeln, Bremen, 1878, 
No. 27, pp. 37 f.; (18) H. Steinhowel, Fabulae Esopi, ed. H. Oesterley, 
Tubingen, 1873, P- 152 (the same in modern German, L. Aurbacher, Ein 
Volksbiichlein, Munich, 1835, I, pp. 181 f.) ; (19) The Isopo Laurenziano, 

1 There are also sundry more or less faithful translations of Petronius, among 
them that of W. Heinse, Begebenheiten des Enkolp, Rome, 1773, ^-f' PP- ^'- f-> 
and that of Thomas Percy, No. i of his volume The Matrons, London, 1762. 

2 Hervieux prints five other Latin versions derived from or nearly related to 
this version, as follows : Les Fabulistes latins, II, pp. 217 f., 258 f., 391, 439, 534 f., 
585 f. It was this version also that furnished the original of Caxton's translation 
(ed. Jacobs, II, pp. 79 f.). 

^ Formerly designated as Anonymiis Neveleti, after an early editor, I. I. Neve- 
letus. From Walter of England was derived the prose version printed by Her- 
vieux, II, p. 391. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES ciii 

No. 31, ed. M. P. Brush, Columbus, Ohio, 1S99, pp. 1461.1 ; (20) A. Zuccho, 
Esopo, No. 49 (two sonnets), Verona, 1479 ; (21) F. del Tuppo, Esopo, No. 50, 
Naples, 1485 (also in L'' Esopo di F. del Tnppo, ed. C. de Lollis, Firenze, 
1866, pp. 63 f.) 2 ; (22) Le Cento Novelle Antiche, ed. L. Cappelleti, No. 51, 
Firenze, 1884, pp. 94 f. ; (23) G. Sercambi, Novelle, No. 16, Bologna, 1871, 
pp. 138 f. ; (24) A. Campeggi, Novelle atnorosi, Venice, 1641, p. 207 ; (25) 
E. Manfredi, Matrona di Efeso, a novella, \nRi})ie, Bologna, 1760, pp. 166 f. ; 
(26) F. S. Zambrini, Libro di Novelle Antiche, No. 37, Bologna, 1868, 
pp. 88 f. ; (27) N. Carteromaco {i.e., Forteguerri), Ricciardetto, canto xiii, 
stanzas 89 f., Paris, 1738, pp. 357 f. ; (28)* D. Somigli, a version in sestines. 
Rime, 1782; (29) C. G. Scotti, Giornate del Brenibo, Pt. I, novel 2, Cre- 
mona, 1805, pp. 54 f. ; (30) Les Faveurs et les Disgraces de P Amour, ou les 
Afnans heureux, avec deux Contes nouveaux en Vers, Cologne, 1695, Pt. II, 
pp. I2f. ; (31) de Brantome {i.e., P. de Bourdeilles), Vies des Datnes 
Galantes, discourse 7, Paris, 1890, pp. 418 f. ; (32) Marguetel de St. Denis, 
OEuvres de M. de Saint-Evre/ziotid, Paris, 1753, III, pp. 48!.; (33)* P. 
Brinon, VEphesieiine, 16 14 (see H. Lucas, Histoire du Theatre franqais, 
Brussels, 1863, III, p. 274) ; (34) *Z« Veufve de Petrone, anonymous, a 
drama, 1668 (Grisebach, p. 85) ; (35) * de Fatouville, Grapigtian ou Arle- 
qtiin procureur, a drama in three acts, 1684 (Grisebach, p. 85) ; (36) * L. 
Fuzelier, a comic opera, 17 14 (Grisebach, p. 85) ; (37) Houdart de La 
Motte, La Matrone d'Ephese, a comedy, Les QLuvres de Theatre, Paris, 
1730, II, pp. 331 f. ; (38) * Le Gay, La Matrone d'Ephese, a comedy in 
one act, 1788 (Grisebach, p. 85) ; (39) J. B. Radet, La Matrone d^Ephese, 
a comedy in one act, The'dire de Radet, Paris, 1795, II, pp. i f. ; (40) J. de 
La Fontaine, C^«/^.5" et Nouvelles en Vers, Paris, 1894, I, pp. 191 f.^; (41) 
* D. W. Triller (Grisebach, p. 118 ; tide and date not given) ; (42) C. F. 
Weisse, Die Matrone von Ephesus, ein Lustspiel in eitiem Akte, Theater 
der Deutschen, Berlin, 1767, V, pp. 447 f. ; (43) Lessing, Die Matrone von 
Ephesus, a fragment, Lessings theatralischer Nachlass, ed. C. G. Lessing, 
Berlin, 1 784-1 786, pp. 133 f. (the same slightly enlarged by K. L. Rahbek, 
Mannheim, 1790) ; (44) A. Klingemann, Die Wittwe von Ephesus, in Neu- 
este deutsche SchattbiiJme, Augsburg, 1818, II, pp. 145 f. (based on Lessing's 

1 For several other Italian versions, derived, like this, from Marie de France, 
see Brush, pp. 43 f. j 

2 For several other Italian versions, closely akin to the versions of Zuccho and 
del Tuppo and with them going back to Walter of England, see Brush, pp. 38, 
79, and A. d'Ancona, Rovianla, III, pp. 175 f. 

3 In connection with the French analogues should be mentioned the unrealized 
plan of G. Flaubert to make use of vidua ; see Grisebach, p. 10, who quotes Lettres 
de G. Flaubert a George Sand, Paris, 1884, p. Ivi. 



civ ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

play) ; (45) * F. Schmidt, a version in his Kleine poetische Schrifteii^ 
Altona, 1766 (Grisebach, pp. Ii8f.); (46) G. C. Griibel, Sdmtniliche 
Werke, ed. G. K. Frommann, Niirnberg, 1857, III, pp. 38 f. ; (47) an 
anonymous German poet, Matrone von Ephesus, reprinted by Grisebach, 
p. 1 1 ; (48) A. von Chamisso, Ein Lied von der Weibertretie, Gedichte, ed. 
M. Koch, Stuttgart, 1893, I, pp. 205 f. ; (49) G. Myll, Buke (or Spectakle) 
of Ltif, chap. VI, ed. D. Laing, Bannatyne Miscellany, Edinburgh, 1836, 
II, pp. 141 f. ; (50) George Chapman, The VViddowes Tears, London, 1612 ; 
(51) W. Charleton, The Ephesian Matron, London, 1659 (the same in 
Latin prose, by B. Harrison, Matrona Ephesia, London, 1665) ; (52) 
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Dying, chap, v, § 8 (" Temple Classics," London, 
1 901, pp. 331 f.) ; (53) * Charles Johnson, The Ephesiati Matron'^; (54) 
W. Popple, The Ephesian Matron, a Tragi-Comedy of One Act, British 
Museum MS. Addl. 186142 ; (55) John Ogilby, The Ephesian Matron^; 
(56) Isaac Bickerstaffe, The Ephesian Matron, a Comic Serenata, after 
the Manner of the Italian, London, 1769; (57) Talmudic Tosiphtaoth to 
Kiddnshin, folio 80b (see P. I. Hershon, A Tabnudic Miscellany, London, 
1880, p. 28) ; (58) A. Sulzbach, Dichtet'kldtige aus Spaniens besscren 
Tagen, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1873, PP- 7^ f- (in verse; purporting to be a 
translation from the Scha" aschuitn of J. Sabara) ; (59) a story current in 
Russia, recorded by P. Lerch, Orient und Occident, II, pp. 373 f. ; (60) a 
story from the Chinese Kin-koii-ki-kouan, tr. P. J. B. Du Halde, Descrip- 
tion geographiqjie, historiqne, etc., La Haye, 1736, III, pp. 402 f. (the 
same in E. Legrand's La Matrone du Pays de Sotmg, Paris, 1884, pp. 4 f. ; 
and, in an English translation, in T. Percy's The Matrons, London, 1762, 
pp. 26 f.) ; (61) G. C. Stent, The fade Chaplet, London, 1874, PP- 6 f . ; 
(62) Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, letter xviii ("Temple 
Classics," London, 1900, I, pp. 84 f.) ; (63) Voltaire, Zadig, chap. 11 ; 
(64) a story of Rabbi Meir and his wife, Beruriah, in certain glosses to the 
Talmud, summarized by Grisebach, p. 27 (the same in metrical form, A. M. 
Tendlau, Das Buch der Sagen taid Legenden jiidischer Vorzeit, 2d ed., 
Stuttgart, 1845, pp. 42 f.); (65) A. de Musset, La Coupe et les Levres, 
OEuvres Completes, Paris, 1866, I, pp. 256 f. ; (66) E. von Biilow, Novel- 
lenbuch, Leipzig, 1836, pp. 21 7 f.; (67) * Veriphantor (i.e., Johann Gor- 
gias), Die tiach Absterben ihres Mannes scheinheilige Wittive, Cologne, 

1 This appears to have been a farce in one act. It is not entered in the Cata- 
logue of the British Museum and probablywas never published. 

2 Preceded by a translation of the version of Petronius. The play proper 
begins on folio 13a. The manuscript contains nothing else. 

3 See Gordon Goodwin in the Dictionary of National Biography, XLII, p. 17, 
■who asserts that the poem was never published. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES cv 

1735 (Grisebach, p. 117); (68) H. W. Kirchhof, Weiidun7nuth, No. 348, 
ed. Oesterley, pp. 388 f. (the same version by J. Ayrer, Ayrers Dramen, 
ed. H. A. Keller, Stuttgart, 1865, IV, p. 2609; and in A Hundred Mery 
Talys, No. c, ed. Oesterley, London, 1866, pp. 158 f.) ; (69) * Restif de 
la Bretonne, Les Conteinporaines, Leipzig, 1784, XVII, pp. 238!. (summa- 
rized by Grisebach, pp. 88 f.) ; (70) J. A. Musaeus, Volks7ndrchen der 
Deutschen, Altona, 1870, pp. 269!.; (71) The Forty Vezirs, ed. Gibb, 
pp. 82 f. (the same in Le Cabinet des Fees, XVI, pp. 63 f.) ; (72) G. Etherege, 
The Matrons, ed. T. Percy, London, 1762, pp. 91 f. ; (73) Imbert, "La 
jeune Veuve," Historiettes ou Nouvelles en Vers, 2d ed., Amsterdam, 1774, 
pp. 5if. ; (74) C. Brentano, "Des todten Brautigams Lied," Gesamf?telte 
Schriften, Frankfurt-am- Main, 1852, II, pp. 370!.; (75) * Comedies nou- 
velles, Berlin, 1753, p. 141, a fragment (see Keller, Dyocletianus Leben, 
p. 50) ; (76) R. H. Barham, "The Knight and the Lady," The Ingoldsby 
Legends, 3d ser., London, 1882, pp. 4151. 

Of the foregoing the first fifty-nine are surely variants of vidua ; the 
next five versions (60-64) reproduce with variations a Chinese story 
which probably found its origin in vidua ; the rest are all in some way 
analogous to vidua, but it is doubtful whether they have any real con- 
nection with it.^ 

Very few of the variants were derived from The Seven Sages, prob- 
ably not more than seven at best : 23, 12, 27, 11, 14, 49, and 59 ; and 
we can be by no means certain that all of these were derived from it. 
Of much more significance for the history of the story have been Petro- 
nius and Phtedrus. The Phaedrus version has given rise to most of the 
fable variants. And the Petronius version has been even more popular, 
especially with those who have dramatized the story ; perhaps one 
fourth of all the variants cited acknowledge in some way a source in 
Petronius. 

^ There are sundry other stories that have been cited by Grisebach and others 
as variants of vidtca, but which prove on examination to be either copies of vari- 
ants listed here (as in the case of the fable collections in particular) or very distant 
analogues having no real connection with our story. In the latter class fall the 
story from the Da^akumdracarita cited by Benfey {Pantsckatantra, I, pp. 436 f.) 
and Grisebach (pp. 67 f.) and the closely related story from the Pantschataiitra 
(Bk. IV, No. 5, ed. Benfey, II, pp. 303 f. ; see Grisebach, pp. 68 f.). Here also 
belongs the supposed variant in the Yvain of Chretien de Troies (see Foerster, 
Romanische Bibliothek, Halle, 1891, V, pp. xiii f.), as has been demonstrated with 
much finality by A. C. L. Brown in his essay on Iwain {Studies and Notes in 
Philology and Literature, Boston, 1903, VIII, pp. i f.). 



cvi ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

Variations in the telling of the story are numerous, but are generally of 
slight consequence. In 12 the husband had been slain in battle; in 47 
he had died at an oyster feast ; in 27 and 49 (as normally in The Seven 
Sages) he had died from a wound in the hand. Only two versions — 23 
and 49 — reproduce the feature of the lodge built over the grave for 
the widow's protection, though at least sixteen versions (5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 
13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 49, 57, 58, 59) represent the husband as having 
been buried in a grave. With at least twenty-one versions (i, 2, 3, 5, 13, 
20, 21, 24, 25, 29, 32, 37, 39, 40, 4i> 43> 44, 47; 49, 5o> 52) the husband's 
body has been placed in a sepulcher or sarcophagus. In i, 2, 3, 24, 25, 
29, 32, 37) 39» 40» 41, 43» 44» 48, 50, 52, 56 a faithful maid-servant 
remains with the widow in the sepulcher. In 43 one of the knight's 
retainers is introduced as a foil to the maid ; he marries the maid at 
the same time that the knight marries the widow. In 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 
II, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27, 29, 31, 40, 41, 44, 47, 
48, 49, 50, 51, 57, 58, 59 only one robber has been hanged ; in 30 and 
32, two robbers; in 56 (as in The Seven Sages'), three robbers; in 52, 
seven robbers; i, 2, and 39 are indefinite as to the number. The 
knight (or sentinel) set to watch the gallows goes to the wife because 
of thirst in 2, 3, 5, 21, 23 ; because of cold in 48, 49, 51, 54; because 
of the light he detects in the sepulcher in 10 and 41 ; he is attracted 
by the wife's lamentations in i, 12, 17, 18, 30, t,2)'> 5^, 59 ; by two or 
more of these causes in 6, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 22, 29, 41. In i, 25, 29, 
40, 41, 50, 54, 56 the knight takes food to the widow and induces her 
to break her fast; in 50 he makes the maid drunk with wine. In 58 
he takes the widow by the hand and conducts her back to the city, but 
she returns the next night. In 17 he takes her to his own home, and 
feasts her. 

In 1 7 and 2 2 the body of the thief had been stolen before the knight 
learned of the widow. In 8, 10, and 19 the knight himself had stolen 
the body and given it burial, he and the robber being kinsmen. In 9 
and 39 the stealing of the robber's body and the subsequent exhuming 
and hanging of the husband's body are omitted ; in 9 the knight goes 
to the widow in pursuance of a boast made to his squire that he could 
win her love; in 39 he is introduced by the maid, who wishes to dis- 
suade her mistress from her resolution to remain in the sepulcher. The 
.maid also encourages the knight in his suit in 39, 40, and 54 ; in 54 the 
maid goes so far as to fit out the knight in the clothes of the husband. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES cvii 

Most of the variants are silent as to the mutilating of the husband's 
body ; and in none of the variants is the mutilation so extensive as it is 
in H. With 22, 27, and 48 the mutilation consists in knocking out one 
tooth ; with 23, in knocking out the fore teeth ; with 30 and 31, in cut- 
ting off one ear ; with 10, in making two wounds in the husband's fore- 
head similar to wounds that had been made by arrows in the robber's 
forehead; with 18 and 58, in pulling the hair off the husband's head; 
with 6, in puUing off the hair, cutting off one leg, and knocking out an 
eye ; with 5 1 , in breaking the legs and arms and besmearing the face 
with blood and dirt. 

In II, 14, 18, 21, 37, 50, 58 the knight marries the widow; in 12, 
19, 22, 49 (as in The Seven Sages), although he has promised to marry 
her, he refuses to do so after he has witnessed her falseness to her dead 
husband. In 54 he gives her a diamond ring at their parting. 

60 is the Chinese story from the Kin-kou-ki-kouan, which runs some- 
what as follows : A wife had promised her husband not to marry a second 
time until after the mold on his grave had become dry; shortly after 
the husband's death one Chouang finds the widow fanning the husband's 
grave in order to dry it off as quickly as possible. Chouang relates the 
incident to his wife, who is indignant at the story and stoutly contends 
that if her husband were to die she would never marry again. Chouang 
determines to test his wife. Accordingly he feigns to have died, having 
first employed his disciple, Wang-Sun, who is privy to the whole scheme, 
to make suit for his wife's love. Wang-Sun is successful in his suit, and 
arrangements are made for their marriage. Just before the appointed 
hour, however, Wang-Sun feigns illness, and sends word to the widow 
that the only possible cure for him is the brain of a man recently dead. 
.She has begun to chop open the cofifin into which Chouang had been 
put, when he drops his feigning and the whole truth is revealed. The 
wife hangs herself; Chouang burns his house and goes to another 
country. 

Ultimately based on 60 are 61, 62, 63, 64, and possibly also 65, 66, 
and 67. These exhibit the following variations : the wife who furnishes 
the initial episode had agreed not to marry again so long as a certain 
stream flowed past her husband's grave, but is seen, soon after her hus- 
band's death, busily engaged in digging a ditch in an effort to change 
the course of the stream (63); the thing mentioned by the husband's 
accomplice as the sole cure of his feigned illness is the heart of one 



cviii ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

newly deceased (62,66), or the nose (63) ; Chouang, after the death of 
his wife, marries the widow who first figures in the story (62). 

68 is the well-known story of ' Wooden John.' 69, 70, 71, 72,73, 74, 
are even more distant analogues, and, as I have said above, are perhaps 
in no way related to vidua, though most of them have been variously 
cited as variants of it. 

13. Roma.^ — Not in the Book of Sindibdd nor in the Dolopathos. 

Roma is one of the stories which were rejected by L and S. In H it 
was fused with senescalcus, the seneschal, who had been banished at the 
end of that story, appearing now as the besieger of Rome. In D, instead 
of seven kings warring against Rome, there are only three. D calls Janus 
Gynever ; H suppresses the name altogether. The tower is called Cres- 
sent by L, K, Ar, E, F. With L, K, D, F the Saracens think Janus is 
God come to the aid of the Romans. K, D*, H, E, D are silent as to 
the crowning of Janus as king. The Welsh version fuses with senescalcus 
the fable of the shepherd who binds his dogs and delivers them up to 
a wolf.^ 

Variants or analogues of Ro7na are to be found in (i) Bede, De 
Divisionibus temporiun, ed. Migne, Bedae Opera, I, p. 659 ; (2) Philip 
de Thaun, Li Cumpoz, 11. 651 f., ed. E. Mall, Strassburg, 1873, pp. 23 
f . ; (3) the Pantschatantra, Bk. I, No. 5, tr. Benfey, II, pp. 48 f. ; tr. 
Schmidt, pp. 54 f.; and (4) W. Radloff, Proben der Volkslit. d. tiirk. 
Stdnime Siid-Siberiens, IV, p. 200.^ 

Of these, the first two — both told by way of explaining how the 
month of January came by its name — are clearly variants of Roma, 
though it is not likely that either was the source of it. They possess, in 
common with Roma, not only the general framework of the story, but 
even the details of the flaming sword and the mistaking of Janus for 
God. Neither, however, mentions the visor or the mirror. 

The third is also a variant of Roma, though it bears few specific 
resemblances to it. This story is briefly as follows : A weaver who had 
fallen in love with a princess enjoys her often, pretending to be the 
angel Narajana. The king, to whom the daughter imparts her secret, is 

1 See Gaston Paris, " Le Recit Roma dans les Sept Sages" Ro7>iania, IV, pp. 1 25 f . 

2 See the note to 1. 3063 f. 

^ Really the conclusion of a variant of gaza (the 28th) ; a similar incident is 
appended to the 27th variant of gaza. See also Morlini, Novellae, No. LXix, 
Lutetiae Parisiorum, 1S55, PP- '-5 ^- 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES ClX 

delighted, and presumes upon the supposed relationship to treat unjustly 
his neighboring kings. The latter make war upon him, and he, finding 
himself hard put to it, seeks the aid of the supposed Narajana. For a 
time the weaver sends no answer to the king, but when the supply of 
food has been exhausted and the city is about to fall, he sends word 
that he will on the morrow come to the king's rescue ; he directs the 
king to lead his army against the enemy, and promises that he will appear 
in the air at the same time and render the enemy powerless. At the 
appointed time the weaver ascends a high place and attempts to imper- 
sonate Narajana. The real Narajana now, fearing that he might lose 
the confidence of the people in case the weaver failed, takes the form 
of the weaver, and, with a bow and a pane of glass among other things, 
so frightens the king's enemies that they are completely routed. The 
weaver then discloses the whole story to the king, who, besides giving 
him his daughter in honorable marriage, rewards him richly. 

The Russian analogue (4) is very distantly related to Roma if at all. 
According to this story a young thief fits himself out in a variegated 
coat, over which he draws a goat's hide covered with little bells. He 
then sets out, mounted upon a camel, which is similarly fitted out with 
goat's hide and bells, in search of a certain prince. When the robber is 
yet a long way off, the prince hears the noise of the bells and sends his 
wife out to ascertain the cause of it. As the robber draws nearer, he 
proclaims aloud that he is the Evil One and that the end of the world 
is at hand ; in consequence of all which both the prince and his wife 
lose their minds. 

Paris believed Roma to be Oriental in origin, and to have been ulti- 
mately derived from the Sanskrit story (3) summarized above, into which 
elements of the Saturn and Janus myths were introduced in the Occi- 
dent. The mirror feature is perhaps to be traced to the influence of 
the Virgilian Salvatio Romae. 

14. Inclusa.^ — In the Dolopathos (metrical version) ^ and in all ver- 
sions of The Seven Sages of Rome except L and S. 

The Dolopathos version differs considerably from that of The Seven 
Sages proper. According to the Dolopathos a Roman, having been 

1 See Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, II, pp. 212 f. ; Clouston, Book of 
Sindibdd, pp. 345 f. ; Keller, Sepi Sages, pp. ccxxvii f. ; Keller, Dyocletianus Leben, 
pp. 61 f. ; and Crane, Italian Popular Tales, pp. 167, 359. 

2 Where it is combined with putais. 



ex ■ ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

much annoyed by his friends, who persistently entreat him to marry, has 
an image of a beautiful woman made, sets it up on a pillar before his 
door, and asserts that he will never marry until he has found a woman 
as beautiful as the image. After a while he learns from some pilgrims 
that there lives in Greece a woman quite as beautiful as the image, and 
he forthwith sets out from Rome to visit her. Arrived at the home of 
the lady, he finds her husband absent from their castle, but the lady is 
reluctant to give up her lord. The Roman finally wins her love, how- 
ever, and it is upon her suggestion that he asks the privilege of build- 
ing a house near the tower in which she is imprisoned. The Roman 
subsequently entertains the husband at dinner, presenting the latter's 
wife as his own wife recently come from Rome. The two then fly. The 
husband, as soon as he has learned of the deceit practiced on him, fol- 
lows after the couple, but does not overtake them until they have 
reached Rome. When the husband comes up with the Roman, the latter 
tells him that his wife has died on the way to Rome ; he proposes, 
however, to make amends, in part, by presenting to him the image which 
had stood before his door, which he asserts is the body of his wife, who 
after her death had turned to stone. The husband accepts the image 
and returns with it to Greece. 

The variations exhibited by other versions are slight. The country 
in which the knight finds the lady is, in E, F, and D, Apulia ; in Ar, 
Plessis. D is silent as to the killing of the mason. D* omits the inci- 
dent of the ring. According to H the lord of the castle first discovers 
the ring on the hand of the knight when the two are hunting together. 
D says nothing of the marriage of the knight and the lady. It elab- 
orates, however, in reporting that the lord of the castle, after learning 
of the falseness of his wife, throws himself from the tower and breaks 
his neck. 

Variants or analogues of indiisa are found as follows : 

(i) Plautus, Miles Gloriosus (in particular Act II, so. i f.)^; (2) Le- 
grand d'Aussy, Fabliatix 011 Contes, 3d ed., Ill, pp. 156 £.; (3) Bojardo, 
Orlando Innamoralo, I, canto xxii ^ (see also Berni, Orlando Innamo- 
rato, tr. W. S. Rose, Edinburgh, 1823, pp. 125 f.); (4) The Thousand and 
One Nights, ed. Habicht, XI, pp. 140 f. (also in J. Payne's Tales from 

1 According to its prologue, based on a Greek play, 'AXafiii'. 

2 See Colbert Searles, " The Leodilla Episode in Bojardo's Orlando Inna- 
viorato" Mod. Lang. Notes, 1902, XVII, pp. 165 f. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES Cxi 

the Arabic of the Breslatt and Calcutta Editions, etc., London, 1884, I, 
pp. 261 f.); (5) Clouston, A Group of Eastern Romances and Stories, 
Glasgow, 1889, pp. 358 f. ; (6) Sercambi, Novelle, No. 13, Bologna, 1871, 
pp. 97 f. ; (7) Pitrd, Fiabe, Novelle e Racconti, No. 176, III, pp. 308 f. ; 
(8) Sansovino, Cento Novelle Scelte, Day X, novel 8, Venice, 1561, 
pp. 383 f. (the same in French in G. C. D[e] T[ours], Les Facetievses 
iovrnees, Day I, novel 10, Paris, 1583, folios 34b f. ; the same also, except 
for the change of all names save Motiopolis, in Masuccio, Novellino, 
No. XXXIV, tr. Waters, London, 1895, II, pp. 167 f.); (9) Les Faveurs et 
les Disgraces de PAtnour, ou les A/nans heuretix, pp. 259 f. ; (10) Gueul- 
lette, Les Mille et un Quart-d''Heure : Coxites Tartares, chaps, ci-civ, 
Paris, 1753, III, pp. 134 f.; (u) A. von Platen, Der Thurm mit sieben 
Pforten, a comedy in one act, 1825, Platen's Gesammelte Werke, I, 
pp. 61 f. ; (12) Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, I, 
pp. 281 f . ; (13) Lidzbarski, Geschichten u. Lieder aus den neu-araindischen 
HSS. d. Konigl. Bibliothek zu Berlin, pp. 229 f. ; (14) J. von Hammer, 
New Arabian Nights Entertainments, tr. Lamb, London, 1826, I, pp. 133 f.; 
(15) Le Roman de Flamenca, 11. 1304 f.,^ ed. P. Meyer, Paris, 1901.^ 

Of these the second is ahnost surely derived from The Seven Sages — 
apparently from some manuscript of L; and 6, 11, and 12 are also 
derivates probably. Only 2 and 12 tell of the knight's dream of the 
lady. With i the lady is a Roman by birth, but had been sold to an 
Ephesian captain. In 12 the lady sought is unmarried, but is the 
daughter of the bailie of London. 8 and 12 are silent as to the secret 
(usually underground) passage. In i, 3, and 4 the husband is persuaded 
that his wife is really one of the latter's sisters. The ring incident reap- 
pears in 2, 6, 9, II ; the incident of the dining, in 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11. 
12 omits all these episodes. In 5, the most elaborate of all the 
variants, the husband thinks he detects his wife, first by a mole on her 
face ; then by fitting to a piece of apple she has in her hand a piece 

1 See O. M. Johnston, Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc, of America, 1905, XX, p. 328, note. 

"^ Partial or extremely distant analogues are also found in (i) the Hindoo 
Vasavadatta (summarized by Clouston, Poptdar Tales and Fictions, II, p. 228); 
(2) Masuccio, Novellino, Nos. xxxviii and XL ; (3) Malespini, Ducente Novelle, 
Pt. II, No. 53, Venice, 1609, pp. 182 f . ; (4) Marie de France's lay of Gtngemar, 
ed. Warnke, pp. 5 f. (see Miss L. A. Pat on, RadcUffe College Monographs, No. 13, 
Boston, 1903, p. 68); (5) Marie de France's lay of Yonec, ed. Warnke, pp. 123 f. 
(see O. M. Johnston in Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc, XX, pp. 322 f.). According to 
Keller, Dyocletianus Leben, p. 62, there is also a variant of inclusa in (Eillets de 
recreations, p. 105, and a metrical version by Imbert. 



cxii ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

that he finds at her chamber ; later he is forced to marry her to the 
suitor ; he succeeds, however, after the ceremony is over, in boxing her 
cheeks and making her face bleed ; but when he returns to her chamber, 
he finds that she, in order to prevent detection, is lacerating her own 
facQ. In lo the husband thinks he has detected his wife by a birth- 
mark behind her ear. In 9 the husband's suspicions are aroused by 
a pet dog which the wife has given the suitor; in 13, similarly by a 
sword, a dagger, and a bracelet ; in 14, by a dagger and a watch. The 
wife deceives her husband by disguising herself as a young dervish in 
10 ; as a slave, in 14. In 4 the husband is made drunk and brought to 
believe that he is a Turk ; acting on this belief he gives up his wife and 
sets out for Ispahan. In 5 the husband, after losing his wife, enters a 
madhouse. In 3 and 13 the husband, after the wife has been stolen, 
pursues the couple ; in 3 he overtakes them and regains his wife, but 
later loses her again. 10 is told from the point of view of the husband ; 
the several pieces of deception are practiced on him in order to cure 
him of his jealousy. In 7 the wife leaves a dummy at her window, and 
thus deceives her husband until she is safely out of his reach. In 14 the 
suitor, after taking the wife to his own land, refuses to marry her. 1 5 is 
incomplete, but is surely related to inclitsa. 

15. Vaticinium.^ — In all versions of The Seven Sages of Rome except 
L; not found in the Dolopathos nor in the Book of Sindibad. 

In H vaticiniiim appears in combination with ainici, a. very early ver- 
sion of the story of A/f/is and Amiloun. Other variations introduced 
by H are (i) the substitution of a nightingale for the two ravens which 
figure in the opening episode, (2) the laying the scene of this episode at 
the house of the father rather than in a boat at sea, and (3) the speci- 
fying Egypt as the land into which the son finally comes and in which 
he attains such miraculous distinction. The remaining versions record 
the story essentially as in the Middle English redactions. 

Among the derivates or parallels of vaticinium are the following : 

(l) Sansovino, Cetito Novelle Scelte, Day IV, novel 5, Venice, 1561, 
folios 144b f. (the same in G. C. D[e] T[ours], Les Facetievses iovrnees, 
Day VII, novel 4, Paris, 1583, folios 218 f.); (2) Lope de Vega, El pronos- 
tico cuniplido, Coleccion de las obras siteltas, Madrid, 1777, VIII, pp. 264 f. ; 

1 See Keller, Sept Sages, pp. ccxxixf. ; Keller, Dyocletianus Lehen, p. 63 ; Clous- 
ton, Book of Sindibad, p. 350 ; Kohler, Kleinere Schrifteu, I, pp. 148 f. (also in 
Mehisine, I, cols. 3S4 f.) ; Crane, Italian Popular Tales, pp. 159 f. 



ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES cxiii 

(3) Comparetti, N^ovelliiie popolare italiane, No. 56, pp. 242 f . ; (4) Grimm, 
Kinder- iind Hausuidrchen, 9th ed., No. 33, pp. 134 f.; (5) Visentini, 
Fiabe Mantouane, No. 50, Turin, 1879, PP- 219 f. ; (6) Ibid., No. 23, 
pp. 121 f. ; (7) J. G. von Hahn, Griechische tmd albanesische Mdrchen, 
No. 45, Pt. I, pp. 258 f.; (8) F. M. Luzel, Legendes chretiennes de la 
Basse-Bretagne, I, pp. 290 f. (the same in Mehisi?te, 1878, I, cols. 384 f .) ; 
(9) Luzel, Melusine, I, cols. 300 f. ; (10) M. Toeppen, Aberglatiben aus 
Masuren, 2d ed., Danzig, 1867, pp. 150 f.; (11) A. Ahlquist, Verstich 
einer tnokscha-mordwinischen Grammatik, St. Petersburg, 1861, p. 97; 
(12) Radloff, Proben der Volkslit. d. tiirk. Stdiiime Siid-Siberiens, Pt. I, 
p. 208; (13) W. Webster, Basque Legends, London, 1877, pp. 136 f. ; 
(14) Ibid., pp. 137 f.; (15) W. R. S. Ralston, Tibetan Tales, pp. 273 f. 

The first of these reports vaticiniiim according to the version of The 
Seven Sages, except that it takes no account of the steward and omits 
the episode of the foot-washing. 2, 8, and 9 were also probably derived 
from The Seven Sages ; and it is not unlikely that most of the remain- 
ing analogues are ultimately connected with it, though they all differ in 
sundry respects from it. 

The prophecy which occasions the father's anger is made by birds (or 
a bird) only in i, 10, 11, 12, 13; in 2 this prophecy is made by a magi- 
cian; in 5, by an angel; in 14, by a mysterious voice. The prophecy 
originates with the son in 8 and 9. In the same versions the immediate 
occasion of the son's making the prophecy is a reprimand administered 
to him for some slight offense. The substance of the prophecy is, in 
i> 5) 8, 13, 14, that the father will one day serve the son; in 9, that the 
father will some day wash the son's feet; in 11, that the father will 
drink from the water in which the son has bathed his feet; in 10, that 
the mother will wash the son's feet and that the father will drink from 
his bath; in 7, that the son will supplant the father on his throne (for 
in 7, as also in 5 and 8, the father is a king). In 3 and 4 the father's 
wrath is occasioned merely by the son's report that he has learned the 
language of birds. 

Only in i, 2, 12, and 13 is the son cast into the sea, as in The Seven 
Sages. In 13 the son is put into a barrel before being cast into the 
sea; in 12 he is killed, but he soon comes back to life again. In 3, 6, 
7, 8, 9, and 14 the father gives the son to a servant (or servants) with 
instructions to put him to death ; the servant takes the son some dis- 
tance from the father's home and sets him free; he then returns 



cxiv ORIGINALS AND ANALOGUES 

and presents to the father, as evidence of having obeyed the latter's 
commands, either a httle finger of the son (7) or the heart of a dog 
which he asserts is the son's heart (6, 9, 14). 

In 5 and 7 the father is the king to whose court the son finally comes 
and at which he distinguishes himself. In 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14 the son 
becomes Pope. In 6, 8, 9, and 14 the fulfillment of the prophecy and 
the reconciliation between son and parents take place at Rome, 
whither the parents (in 14, only the mother) have come to do penance 
for their ill treatment of their son. 



Here Bigyns ]?e Prices of ]^e Seuyn Sages. 

Lordynges yat her^ likes to dwell, 
Leues jowr^ speche am/ heres )?is spell. 
I sal 50W tel, if I haue tome, 
Of j^e Seuen Sages of Rome. 

Whilom lifed a nobil man ; 5 

His name was Dyoclician. 
Of Rome and of al jie honowr^ 
Was he lord am/ emperowr^. 
An empires he had to wyfe, 

f>e fayrest lady pat bar<? life, — 10 

Of al gude maners ful auenant ; 
And hir name was Dame Milisant. 
A childe )>ai had bytwix pam two, 
pe fayrest pat on fote myght go, 
A knaue childe pat was pam der^r; 15 

Of him sone sal je selkuths her^. 

Sone efterward byfel pis case : 
pe lady died ami grauen was. 
And went whar^ God hyr dight to dwell ; 
pdiviore of hir na mor*? I tell, 20 

Wheper sho past to pyne or play; 
Bot of pe son I sal jow say. 
When he was seuyn winter aide. 
Of speche and bourding was he balde. 

Heading R begyns, process, seuen. — i R Hordynges, lykes. — z W yowr, R 
yho?<r spech. — 3 R sail yhow tell. — 5 R lyfed, noble mane. — 6 R Diocliciane. 
— "] R all, honoure. — 8 R emp^roure. — (^ R Ane Empe^rise. — \o R fairest, lyfe. 

— II i? all gud, full, ^Fauenaunt. — 13 R child, bi twix. — 14 R fairest. — 15 W, 
R child. — \(i R sail yhe selcouthes. — ^1 R aft^rrward bi fell. — 18 /? dyed, wase. 

— 19 i? hir dyght. — 20 R J^arfor, no more. — 21 R scho. — 22 R sail yhow. — 
23 R seuen wynt^r aid. — 24 A" spech, bourdyng, bald. 



2 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Florentine his name cald was. 25 

Herkens now a ferly case. 

His fader was Emp^rour^ of Rome, 
A nobil man and whise of dome; 
And Florentine ]>at was so fayr^ 
Was his son and als his ayre. 30 

It was nothing pat he lufed mar^, 
J>arfor^ he wold him set to lari? ; 
And sone he gert byforn hym come 
Seuyn Maysters ]'at war in Rome. 
J>e tale vs telles, who to it tentes, 35 

J>at fai kowth al ])e seuy« sienz. 
And sone when pai war efter sent, 
Hastly to pe court pai went. 
J>ai come byfor ])e Emp^rour^, 
Atid hailsed him with grete honours. 40 

He said : " Lordinges, takes entent, 
And sese whi I efter jow sent: 
For je er wisest men of lar^ 
J>at in ])is werld jit euer war^. 

My son I wil je haue for|n, 45 

To make him kunand in clergy; [25 d] 
And I wil pat je teche him euyn 
JJe sutelte of sience seuyn; 
And al jowr** wisdom and jowr*? wit. 
Mi wil es pat je teche him it. 50 

Whilk of 50W now wil him haue 
And fullfil pis pat I craue ? " 

Maister Bancillas spak pan ; 
For of pam was he oldest man. 
Lene he was and also lang, 55 

25 R fflorentyne. — 27 R Emp^roxir. — 28 R noble, wise. — 29 R Florentyne. 

— 32 ^ J^arfor, sett. — 33 j? bi for him. — 34 R Seuen maist^rs. — 36 i? couth 
all, seuen scientes. — 38 .ff Hastily. — 39 i"? bi for. — a,o R gret. — i,\ R lordynges. 

— i,2 R yhow. — 43 .^ yhe, wysest. — 44 ^ world yhit. — 45 y? will yhe. — 46 i? 
mak, conand, W cunnand. — \T R will, yhe, euen. — 48 i? sotelte, science seuen. 

— i,() R all yho?^r, yho?/r wytt. — 50 R will, yhe, itt. — 51 R yhow, will. — 52 R 
full fyll. — 54 ff'that. — 55 i^ all so. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 3 

And moste gentil man fam omang; 

Ful p^rfiteli he kouth his partes, 

And sadly of al ))e seuyn artes. 

"Sir," he said, " tak me ]n son; 

Ful mekil thank I wil pe kun ; 60 

And trewly I sal teche him pan 

Of clergy mor^ J)an ani man, — 

]:>at dar I vndertak fe her^, — 

Within Jie Xerme. of seuyn jer^." 

When ]ns was said, he held his pese. 65 

And fan said Maisti?r Anxilles. 
He was a man meteliest. 
Arid of eld as him semed best, 
Of sexty winter and na mar.? ; 

And als he was ful wise of lar^. 70 

" Sir, tak me ]n son," he said, 
"And })ou sal hald )'e ful wele payd. 
I sal him leri? ful right atid rath 
p>at I can and mi felous bath. 

I vndertak he sal it ler^ 75 

Within I'e space of sex %exe." 

J>e thrid maistd*/- was litel man, 
Fair^ of cher.? atid white als swan ; 
His har^ was white atid nathing brown ; 
And he hight Maister Lentilioune. 80 

He spak vnto j'e Emp^rour.?: 
"Tak me ]'i sun, sir, paramowr^. 
And I sal teche him ful trewly 
Al maner of clergy 

)7at ani man leres in ])is Hue, 85 

Within pe t^rme of jeres fiue." 

56 /Fmost, R mast gentyll. — 57 A" ffull parfytely, couth, lV\n instead of h\s. — 
58 R all, seuen. — 59 ^ sayd. — 60 .'i ffull mykell, will, kon. — 61 R sail. — 
62 R any. — 63 W ye for \>g. — 64 /? space of seuen yhere. — 6^ R sayd. — 6-j R 
metelyest. — 69 A" wyntifr, no mare. — -jo R full. — 72 IV you, ye, R sail, full. — 
73 /? sail, full ryght, rathe. — 74 j? kan, my felows bathe. — 757? sail. — 76 i? yhere. 
— 77 ^ thred, lytell. — 78 R whyte, ^Fas. — 79 i? nothing broune. — 82 i'Pson, para- 
moure. — 83i?sall, full. — 84 A' All. — 85 y?any, lyue. — 86 fTtime, R yheres fyue. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 

J7e ferth maist^r a rede man was, 
And his name was Malquidras ; 
Of fifty winter was he aide, 

Quaint of hand and of speche balde. 90 

Him thoght scorn and grete hething 
J>at pai made so grete rosing, 
"Syr," he sayd, "I sal tell pe, [26a] 
Mi felows wit fals noght to me, 

Ne of \di\xe wisdom o nane wise 95 

Wil I mak no marchandise. 
Bot, sir, Y\ son vnto me take, 
Afid I sal teche him for )n sake 
J>e sienz of Astronomy, 

]7at falles to sternes of ]:>e sky, 100 

And o]>e.x sex syenz alswa. 
In four^ jer^ withowten ma." 

JJe fift maist^r was wise of dome ; 
And he was cald Caton of Rome. 
He made ])e boke of Catoun cler^, 105 

J>at es bigin;/y«g of Gramer^. 
He karped loud vnto ])e Kyng : 
" Sir, tak ]n son to mi techeing ; 
I wald noght he decayued war<?, 

Bot I ne knaw noght mi felous lar^. no 

Bot for to ler^ him I warand 
Als mekil als he mai vnderstand. 
And als his wittes wele ber^ may — 
Forpermar^ dar I noght say — 

So ))at in time of seuen jere 115 

He sal be wise withowten wer<?," 



87 R )'e mutilated, red. — 89 ^ fyfty wyntirr, aid. — 90 ^ Quaynt, spech bald, 
^ hande. — 91 R skorn, gret. — 92 R swa gret rosyng, fF josyng. — 93 R Sir, 
said, sail, W tel. — ()A R witt falles. — 95 -^ pair wisdome on none wyse. — ^6 R 
Will, marchandyse. — 97 ^ this. — 98 R sail. ^ — 99 R science. — 100 R inserts 
he after to. — loi R science all swa. — 102 R yhere -with outen. — 103 R fyft. — 
105 R buke, Caton. — 106 IP biginyng, R bi gynyng. — loy R carped.— 108 JV 
this, R my techyng. — no R my felows. — 112 R mykell, may. — 113.'? wyttes, may 
bere. — 1 1 5 i? tyme, yhere. — 116 R sail, w/t/^outen. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 5 

J>e sext maistffr rase vp onane; 
J)e fairest man of J)am ilkane ; 
lesse was his name, godote, 

Withouten faut fra heuid to fote. 120 

His hair^ was blayke and nothing broun, 
With eghen fairt' als a faukoun. 
" Sir," he said, " if Jn wil wer^, 
Tak \\ son to me at leri? ; 

I sal him teche with hert fre, 125 

So J^at inwith jeres thre 
Sal he be so wise of lar*? 
]7at je sal thank me eu^rmar^." 

J?e seuind maist^r, Maxencius, 
A right wis man and vertiuus, — 130 

Al his life with grete honowr^ 
Had he serued }>e Emp^rour^, — 
"Sir," he said, "if pi will be, 
For al ))at I haue serued ])e, 
. Bitake ]>i son vnto my lar^; 135 

For mi seruise I ask no mar^. 
Ful mekil thank I wil ])e kun ; 
And al ))e clergy vnder son 
Sal I him teche to kun ful right. 
Ful hardily ])is I ]'e hyght." [26 b] 140 

When ]>e maist^rs ])us had sayd, 
J7e Emp^rour^ ful wele was payd ; 
He spak to jmm with meri chere. 
And said on heght )'at al might her^. 
He said : " I thank jow all, lordinges, 145 

Of jowr^ answers in al thinges ; 
For if mi son so wele may ler<? 

iij R rayse. — 120 ^faute, heid, Rho heued. — 121 J? hare, blayk, broune. — 
122 i^fawkoune. — 123 A" will. — 1257? sail. — 126 R vniih in yheres. — i2-j R Sail. 
— 128 R yhe sail. — i2<) R seuynd. — 130 ^ ryght wyse. — 131 -A" All, lyfe, gret 
honoure. — 134 R all. — 135 y? Bi tak. — 136 R my seruyse. — 137 R ffuU mykell, 
will, con. — 138 R all. — 139 R Sail, tech, full ryght. — 140 R ffull. — 142 R 
full. — 143 R meiy. — ^144 R all myght. — 145 R yhow, lordynges. — 146 R 
yhour, all. — 147 R my. 



6 THE SEVEN SAGES 

To kun jowr^ vertuse al in fer^, 

Sertes )'an wald I be blithe 

And gif 50W tresor^, land, and lithe. 150 

And sen je prefer fusgat now, 

I wil je tak mi son with 50W, 

And teche him al pe artes seuyn, 

J>at none be whiser vnder heuy«. 

And je sal dwel togeder still, 155 

And teche mi son — )ns es mi will — 

So fat he ler^ noght al of ane, 

Bot with al sal he be forth tane." 

By }'e hand he toke )'e childe 
Ajid gaf him to \o maist<?rs milde. 160 

]7e maisters war farof ful blith. 
And thanked him ful fele sithe. 
J>ai toke j^air^ leue and went in hy 
With ])e childe to |)e consistori, 

J>at es a stede within Rome 165 

Whar^' clerkes cu;;/es ]'at kan wisedome. 
pe maisters \?ixe \?i\xe kounsail toke 
For to set })is childe to boke. 
J>ai said in Rome dwel might he noght. 
For fair^ wemen sold change his thoght ; 170 

In ryot so j^ai sold him sett 
J>at al his lar<f sone sold it let. 

J>ai toke kownsail omang fam all 
At haue pe childe vnto a hall 

Biside Rome in a vergers, 175 

A myle fra toun, bi a reuer^ ; 
J>e wat^r of Tyber ran Jiarifobout, 

148 R yhowr, all. — 149 R blythe. — 150 R gyf yhow, lythe. — 151 R yhe, 
J^usgate. — 152 ^will yhe, my, yhow. — 153 R tech, all,seuen. — 154^ wiser, heuen. 

— 155 J? yhe sail dwell to gyder styll. — 156J? my, my. — 157 R Sa, all. — 158 y? all 
sail, furth. — 159 R Bi, child. — 160 R \>&, mylde. — 161 R l)areof full blythe. — 
162 y?full, sythe. — 163 R\>2\x. — xd^R child, consistory. — 166 i? comes, wisdome. 

— 167 R hair counsail. — 168 R sett, child. — 169 R dwell myght. — 170 R fair 
wymen suld chaunge. — 171 R suld. — i-j2 R all, suld, lett. — 173 R counsail. — 
174 V? child. — 175 ■'^ Besyde. — ijS R toune be, ryuere. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 7 

And thorgh Rome, pis es no dowt. 

Al maner of trese groued })ar^ 

J)at ani froyt on erth bar^. 180 

}?ar^ was a hal with chambers seuen ; 

Fairer was none vnder heuyn. 

J>e chambers closed obout fe hall 

So fat it stode omang |jam all ; 

Fayrer hal was none in land, 185 

Richely painted with mans hand. 

J>ar^ war paynted in diuers partes [26 c] 
Sotelly al jje seuyn artes ; 
]?at es, to wit, first Gramary, 

Musike and Astronomy, 190 

Geometri a7id Ars Metrike, 
Fisik and also Retorike. 
]?e child sege in middes was wroght 
So \2X he al se pam moght. 

In })at sege he set him down ; 195 

J)e maist<?rs teched him a lessown. 
When ane him left, anoj'er \\\m toke, 
JJat he was euer halden at his boke ; 
And to his lar^ euer toke he kepe, 
Bot when he ete or when he slepe. 200 

When he wald rest him at his boke. 
On ])e walles wald he pan loke, 
Whar^ he might se paynted euyn 
Ful opynly pe artes seuyn. 

Sone he concayued in Latin speche 205 

Al pat his maisters wald him teche ; 
He toke so gude tent to his lar^, 
Arly and late and euermare, 

178 R thurgh, dout. — 179 R All manure, trees. — 180 R any frute, MS. erth. — 
181 R hall, chaumbers. — 182 R heuen. — 183 R chaumbers. — 185 R ffairer hall. 

— 186 R Rychely paynted. — 187 R diufrse. — 188 R all, seuen. — 189 R witt. — 
190 R Musyke. — 191 .ff Geometry, als Metryke. — 192 R ffysyke, all so Retoryke. 

— 193 R myddes. — 194 R all. — 195 R sett, doune. — 196 R lessoune. — 197 R 
aneoth<rr. — 1 98 .ff buke. — 20\ R buke. — 203 R myght, euen. — 204 R ff uU openly, 
seuen. — 205 R consayued, latyn. — 206 R All. — 207 R gud. — 208 R Arely. 



8 THE SEVEN SAGES 

]7at )'e ferth ^ere in ])at hall 

Dessputed he with his maist^rs all; 210 

Was none so witty fer ne ner^ 

Of Cramers ne of Mosike cler<?. 

J7e fift ■^ere held he argument 

Of planetes in j^e firmament. 

pe sext 5er^ his maist^rs thoght 215 

For to asay him yf pai moght ; 
J>ai puruaid jiam leues sextene 
f>at war of iubarb gude and grene. 
J>e child lay in a bed o loft, 

Made ful esely and soft ; 220 

Vnder ilka corner of pe bed 
Four/f leues fe maysters spred, — 
Ilkane on oj'er als }?am thoght. 
Bot ]'e maist^rs werk ne wist he noght. 
J>e childe went to his bed ]>z.t night, 225 

And sone him thoght it raised on hight. 
f»arfor^ jiat night he sleped noght, 
Bot euer in his hert he thoght 
J>at J'e firmament was satteld doun 
Wele lawer J^an it was won ; 230 

Or els fe erth was raised bidene 
]>e thiknes of four^ leues grene. 
)?us lay he thinkand al J^at night. 
And sone, when it was dayes light, [26 d] 
He redied him and went to hall, 235 

J>arin he fand his maist.?rs all ; 
He hailsed pam, and hendly stode 
Al bar^heuid withouten hode. 

pe childe luked obout him fast ; 
And hastily his maisters ast 240 

209 /? yhere. — 210 R Desputed. — 211 R vvytty. — 212 R Gramer, Musyke. — 
213 R fyft yhere. — 215 A* yhere, maysters. — 216 R ffor till assay, if. — 217 R 
puruayd. — 218 R lubark gud. — 220 R full, ««</ full soft. — 222 R maistifrs.— 
224 R wist instead of noght. — 225 R child, nyght. — 226 R raysed, hyght. — 227 R 
harfor, nyght. — 229 R done. — 230 R wone. — 231 R raysed. — 233 R all, nyght. 

— 234 R days lyght. — 235 R redyedy. — 236 R J>are in. — 237 R haylsed, hendely. 

— 238 R All, heued. — 239 R child loked. — 240 R maysters. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 9 

What thing he p<?rsaiued in J^at place. 

" P^rfay," he said, "a ferly case; 

For ow))er am I mad or drunken, 

Or els J'e heuen es sumdel sonken, 

Or els raised es pis grounde 245 

J>e thiknes of four^ leues rounde ; 

J>is night so mekill higher I lay 

Mor(? pan it was jisterday," 

J7e maist^rs pan wele vnderstode 

f>e childes wit was wonder gode. 250 

Or pe seuin jer^ war gane. 

He past his maisters euerilkane. 

Togeder had pai grete solace. 
Bot sone pan fel a ferly case. 

Of pe riche Emp^rour^ of Rome 255 

I sal 50W tel if I haue tome ; 
J>arfor<7 pe childe now lat we be, 
And of his fader speke wil we. 
His knightes com to him on a day, 
And pir wordes gan pai say : 260 

" Sir, je lif an anly life ; 
We wald 50W rede to wed a wife, 
To haue solace bitwix jow twa. 
And fandes to get childer ma ; 

For je haue werldes welth gude wane 265 

To mak pam riche men ilkane." 

Hereof pe Emp^rowr^ was payd. 
And sone asented als pai said. 
}?ai puruaid him an empmse, 
A gentil lady of mekil prise, 270 

241 /? p^rsayued. — 243 /? outher, dronken. — 244 i'? somdele. — 24$ J? raysed, 
ground. — 247 J? nyght, mykell hegher. ^ 248 ^ yhistf rday. — 2 50 i? witt, gude. — 
251 /?seuenyhere.— 2 53i?Togyder, gret. — 254-/? fell. — 255 i?ryche Emp<?rour. 
— 256 i? sail yhow tell. — 257 /? }>arfor, child. — 258 i? spek will. — 259 J? knyghtes 
come. — 261 /? yhe lyfe ane anely lyue. — 262 J? yhow red, wyue. — 263 J? To 
mutilated, yhow. — 264 R gett. — 265 R yhe, worldes, gud. — 266 R ryche. — 
267 R Emp^rour. — 268 R assented, sayd. — 269 R puruayd ]?am ane. — 270 R 
gentyll, mykell pryse. 



10 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Ful lufsom and of high lenage. 

J>e Emp^rour<? asked ]>e mariage ; 

J)e barnage al farto asent 

fJat he sold wed pat ladi gent. 

J>an war \z\ wed by comu« dome; 275 

J>at was )je custuw })an in Rome. 

J>ai made grete mirth and mangery, 

And samin lufed pai ful trewly, 

J?ar<f was grete welth at J^air^ wedy;/g, 

Als semly was to swilk a thing, 280 

Sone efter J^at fel ferly case; [27 a] 
I sal 50W tel how )?at it wase. 
For nathing mai ay vnhid be, 
Bot anely Goddes awin preuete. 

Opon a day a seriant nyce 285 

Tald vnto fe Emperice 
Of fe Emp^rour^ son ful euyn, 
And how he wond with maist^rs seuyn, 
And how he sal be Emperowr^ 

Eftifr his fader of pat honowr^, 290 

And how hir barnes sal be bastardes, 
And how he sal haue al fe wardes, 
And how he sal haue in his hand 
Al pe lordship of pat land. 

When pe Empmce herd of pis childe, 295 

Hir thoght pat sho was euil bigild ; 
And in hir hert sho thoght ful sone, 
With wichecraft sold he be vndone. 
Sho puruaid hir a counsailour^, 
A wiche pat cowth hir wele socour^. 300 

271 R ffull, hegh. — -272 R Emp^rour, maryage. — 273 R bernage all, assent. — 
274 i?suld, lady. — 275 /?be comon. — 276 R custom. — 277 TPgret myrth, maungery. 

— 278 R samen, full. — 279 R gret, l^air. — 280 R semely. — 281 7? efter l^an fell a. 

— 282 R sail yhow tell. — 283 R no thing may, vnhyd. — 284 R godes awen. — 286 R 
Emp^ryse. — 287 i? Emp^rour, full euen. — 2S8 R seuen — 289 R sail, Emp^roure. 

— 290 R After, honoure. — 291 R sail. — 292 R sail, all. — 293 R sail. — 294 R 
All, lordschip. — 295 R Emp<?ryse, child. — 296 R om. ))at, /? scho, euell bigyld. 

— 297 R scho, full. — 298 A" wychecraftsuld. — 299/? Scho puruayd, counsayloure. 

— 300 R wyche, couth. 



THE SEVEN SAGES II 

]?ai made couenant bitwen J)am twa 

}?e Emp^rours son for to sla. 

J>ai ordand J'us bi pair^ asent 

A maner of experiment, 

J>at if )'e childe spak les or mar<?, 305 

Fra he into court entred war*; 

To seuyn daies war went fully, 

At ]>e first word sold he dy ; 

Afi^ if he seuyn daies hald him still, 

Efter may he speke at will. 310 

]?us 'was )>air(? purpose and faire thoght 

pe childe sone to dede haue broght. 

Bot mani wald greue ofer sari? 

A/id to })amself turnes al f»e car^. 

On \>e same wise fel it her^; 315 

Herkins now on what maner<?. 

J»e Emp[^r]our^ and his fair^ wife, 
J>at he lufed euer als his life, 
On a day ]>ai played pam samen ; 
And als }'ai war best in fair^ gamen, 320 

" Sir," sho said, " bi heuin king, 
I luf 50W ouer al ofer thing. 
And 5e luf me noght so trewly; 
I sal 50W say encheson why. 

Vntil fis court when pat I come, 325 

§e made me Empmce of Rome, 
To be with jow at bed and borde. 
And wit 50wr<r cownsail ilka worde. [27 b] 
Bot a thing haue je hid fra me 
J>at I haue moste desire to se. 330 

301 J? conand, bitwene. — 302 /? Emperour. — 303 J? ordaind, J^air assent. — 
304 /? man(?re, experyment. — 305 j? child. — 306 /^ ffro. — 307 7? seuen days. 
— 308 J? suld. — 309 J? seuen days, styll. — 310 /? wyll. — 311 /\! t'air, J>air. — 
312 i? child, ded. — 313 /? many. — 314 A" all. — 315 7? fell. — 316 /i Herkens.— 
317 MS Empour<f, J? fair wyfe. — 318 Tf lyfe. — 319 /? playd. — 320 /? hair. — 
321 J? scho sayd, heuen kyng. — 322 J? yhow, all, thyng. — 323 J? yhe, MS. 
lul.— 324 /? sail yhow. — 325 J? vntyll. — 326 /? Yhe, Emp^ryse. — 327 /^ yhow, 
bord. — 328 J? witt yhour counsail, word. — 329 Ji yhe hyd fro. — 330 J? most 
desyre. 



12 THE SEVEN SAGES 

" §e haue a son fat es jow der^, 
With seuyn maisters for to ler^; 
He es ))i son, sir, and ))ine ayr^, 
And als, I her^ say, whise and fayr^. 
I wald se him bifor me stand 335 

JJat es so wise and so cunand ; 
I luf him wele, for he wil thriue ; 
Al samyn I wald we led our^ Hue, 
For sertes, sir, sen he es )nne. 

Me think also he sold be myne. 340 

For sertes, sir, it mai fal swa, 
J>at neuer gettes }>ou childer ma. 
If )70u wil euer haue ioy of me, 
J>i fair^ son pou lat me se." 

Son answerd ]'e Emp<?rouri?, 345 

And said : " Dame, by Saint Sauior^, 
J>ou sal him se, yf fat I may, 
Tomorn by vnderon of fe day." 

Sho answerd fan with semblant blith, 
" Gramercy, syr, a hundereth sith. 350 

I sal him honors at my myght, 
Als I am halden wele by right." 

JJe Empd-rour^ cald currurs twa. 
And bad fam swith fat fai sold ga 
His erand to fe Seuyn Sages, 355 

A?id to fam tald he his message[s] : 
"§e sal fam prai, on al maner<?. 
Send hame my son, fat es me der<?; 
For I wil wit tomorn by prime 

How fat, he has set his tyme ; 360 

Miself sal bath se and her^ 

331 R Yhe, yhow. — 332 R seuen. — 334 R wise. — 335 R be for. — 336 R 
conand. — T^y] R will thryue. — 338 R All samen, our lyue. — 340 R all so, suld. 

— 341 i"? may fall. — 343 i? will. — 344 /'fair. — 345 j*? Sone. — 346 7? be, sauyoure. 

— 347 R sail, if. — 348 R bi. — 349 R Scho, sembland blyth. — 350 R sir, hundreth 
sythe. — 351 R sail, hono?<re. — 352 R bi ryght. — 353 A' empd-rour. — 354 R 
swyth, suld. — 355 R seuen. — 356 MS. message. — 357 R Yhe sail, pray, all. — 
359 .^ will witt, be pryme. — 360 R sett. — 361 R sail. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 13 

What he has lered )ns seuyn jer^." 

f>e messagers er wightly went 
To do J)air^ lordes cuwandment. 

Unto ]>e place smertly ))ai come , 365 

Whar^ ])ai wond withouten Rome. 
Into J>e hal pai went ful euyn, 
And \z.xe ])ai fand ])e Maisters Seuyn, 
Fair^ desputand in Latyne 

With ]>e jung childe, Florentine. 370 

J>e messag<?rs on knese pam set, 
And pe maysters fair^ fai gret. 
J>e child also )iai gret ful fairi? 
Als prince of Rome and kindest ayr^. 

J^ai said: "JJe Emp^rour^ of Rome [27 c] 375 
Cumand vs heder to come ; 
He biddes je sal send hame his son, 
And hastily J?at it be done, 
J>at he cuw in his awin presens ; 
And for jowr^ trauail and jowr^ spens 380 

He wil 50W quite on al maner^, 
And mak aseth for ]>is seuy« jer^." 
J>e messagers war welkum ^zre 
With ]'a maisters les a?id mar^. 

Vnto pe soper^ war ))ai sett, 385 

And riche fode bifor fam fett; 
Ful wele at ese j^ar^ war ]jai made 
With al gamyns pat men might glade. 

J>ar^ pai soiornd al pat night ; 
: f>e mone afid sternes bath shined bright. 390 

Forth pan went pe maisters all, 

362 R seuen yhere. — 363 R Messangers. — 364 R bair, comandement. — 
2,^^ R hall, full euen. — 368 R seuen. — 369 R ffair. — 370 R yhong child 
fflorentyne. — 371 R messangers, sett. — 372 R maisters fair, grett. — 373 R all 
so, grett full. — 374-^ prynce, kyndest. — 375 R sayd, Emp^rour. — 376 R 
C.omand, hyder. — 377 R byddes yhe sail, sone. — 379 R com, awen presence. — 
380 R yhoitr, yhour spence. — 381 R will yhow quyte, all. — 382 R seuen yhere. 
—r 383 R messangers, welcom. — 386 R ryche, befor. — 387 ^ ffull. — 388 R alkyn 
gamen, myght. — 389 R all, nyght. — 390 R both schyned bryght. 



14 THE SEVEN SAGES 

And ))e childe with pam gan })ai call 

Preuely to a gardine ; 

Afid J)ar<f ))ai teched Florf^-entine 

How fat he sold do and say 395 

His lord J'e Empifrowr^ to pay. 

And in ))at time ]'ai toke entent, 

And loked vp to ))e fyrmament ; 

)7ai saw ]>e constellaciowne. 

J>ar.?of a wise man was Catoun ; 400 

He luked ])e sternes and pe mone, 

And what he saw he said ful sone : 

" Felous, je sal vnderstand 
Slike ferlies neuer bifor*? I fand ; 
J>e Emp^rour^ has til vs sent 405 

To bring him hame his son so gent ; 
Aftd if we bring him to his lord, 
I se l)ar^ sal be sone discord. 
For if he speke with man or wyfe, 
At ])e first word he loses his life ; 410 

And if him swilk vnhap bifall, 
J>e Emp^;our(f wil ger sla vs all. 
And fat it sal fusgat be done, 
May ge se in sternes and mone." 
JJan fai biheld fe sternes ilkane, 415 

And al acorded fai vntil ane, 
)?at al was soth pat Caton talde. 
And Florentine fan gan byhalde 
Vnto fe sternes and to fe mone. 
And what he saw he said ful sone. 420 

He said : " Sirs, se je noght fis tide 



392 R child. — 393 R gardyne. — 394 MS. ffior^entine, R fflorentyne. — 395 R 
suld. — 396 R fader instead of lor A, Emp^roure. — 397 R tyme, tuke. — 39S R luked, 
firmament. — 399 R constellacyoune. — 400 y? wyse, Catoune. — 401 ^ loked. — 
402 R full. — 403 R ffelows yhe sail. — 404 R Swilk ferlyes. — 405 R Emp^rour, 
till. — 4o6i'?bryng. — 407 i'Pbryng. — 408 /?sall. — 410 i^ lose, lyfe. — 411 j^vnhapp. 
— 412 ^ Empifrour will. — 413 ^ sail J^usgate. — 414 -^ yhe se bi \>e sternes ^Wj^e 
mone. — 416 R all, vntyll. — 417 R all, tald. — 418 R fflorentyne, bi hald. — i 
420 R sayd full. — 421 A" syrs, yhe, tyde. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 1 5 

A litel stern })e mone bisyde ? [27 d] 

Can je me tel, )ns pray I jow, 

What 5one stern bitakins now ? " 

J)an sayd )'e maist^rs, mar^ atid myn : 425 

"Tel vs what |>ou sese ]>ar<?yn." 

" Sirs," he said, " I sal jow tell 
What ))e mone a7id pe st^rnes menes omel. 
J>e mone sais I sal dy with wreke 
At })e first word ]?at I speke ; 430 

J>e litel stern pan tels me till 
If I mai seuyn dayes hald me still 
And answer vnto ]'am nathing, 
J7an sal I lif in gude liking. 

And I sal be of grete renowne, 435 

And saue jow fra destrucciowne." 
JJe maist^rs vnderstode ful wele 
J>at he said soth ilka dele. 

JJan spak Maist^r Bausillas, 
And said : " J>is es a ferly case. 440 

I rede we tak our^ kounsail sone » 

On what maner es best to done." 
J>e childe [said]: "Sirs, saun fayle, 
I sal tel jow my counsayle : 

Seuen dales sal I hald me still 445 

And speke na word, gude ne ill ; 
And sen je er Seuyn Mayst^rs wise, 
In al fe werld maste of prise. 
By jowr^ wit me think je may 

Ilka man saue me a day, 450 

A7id warand me with jowr^ wisdom 

422 R lytell Sterne. — 423 R Kan yhe, tell, yhow. — 424 R yhone st^rne, bi 
takens. — 425 R said, more. — 426 R Tell, l>are in. — 427 R sail yhow. — 428 R 
omell. — 429 .^ says, sail. — 430 R f yrst. — 431.^ lytell sterne, telles, tyll. — 432 ^ 
may seuen days, styll. — 433 R nothing. — 434 R sail, lyf, gud lykyng. — 435 R sail, 
gret. — 436 R yhow, destruccyoune. — 437 j^full. — 438 R inserts euer after soth. 

— 439 R\z. ^}'an z7/i?^//;/<r, Bancillas. — 441 R red, our counsail. — 442 R manure. — 
443 R child, MS. om. said, R syrs. — 444 R sail tell yhow. — 445 R days sail, styll. 

— 446 R no, gud. — 447 R yhe, seuen maist^rs. — 448 R all, world most, pryse. — 
449 R Bi yho?<r witt, yhe. — 451 R yho«r wysdome. 



l6 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Bifor mi fader, Empifrour^ of Rome ; 

A7id sejun I sal speke for vs all 

Atid ger our<f famen al doun fall. 

]7an sal we wele venged be 455 

Of )>am fat ordans ])us for me." 

\zx\. spak Maist^r Bausillas, 
A7id said : " Son, by Saint Nicholas, 
A dai for j^e I sal be bowne." 

^'•And I anoper," said Maist<?r Caton. 460 

And al halely to Him j^ai hight 
For to saue him at )?air^ might 
Fra alkin shame and velany. 
And he said : " Maisters, gramercy ; 
I xayin suffer ful grete turmentes, 465 

Bot if ^e haue gude argumentes." 

hiter ]nr wordes rase J^ai all 
And went ogayn into ]'e hall. 
It was wele passed of ])e night; [28 a] 

Vnto bed al went ]>ai right. 470 \ 

J'e childes thoght was euer in one 1 

How ])at him was best to done ; 

And how he sold be war and wise f 

A7id answer noght ))e Emp^rice. » 

For wele he wist atid vnderstode 475 | 

JJat scho wald him litel gude. i 

When day was cumen and nyght gane, ^ 

J>e maisters rase ful sone ilkane ; | 

J>ai cled ]>e childe in riche wede | 

And horsed him on a gude stede, 480 \ 

And forth ])ai went fra fat gardyne \ 

J>at was kald Boys Saynt Martine. I 

452 R my, Empifrour. — 453 R sithen, sail. — 454 R our, all doune. — 455 R sail. 

— 457 R Bansillas. — 458 R bi. — 459 R day, sail, boune. — 460 R ane oth<?r, 
Catoune. — 461 R all. — 462 R J^air myght. — 463 R ffro alkyn schame, vilany. 

— 465 R mon, full gret turment. — 466 R yhe, gud argument. — 467 R Eft^r, rayse. 

— 469 R nyght. — 470 R all, ryght. — 473 R suld, vvyse. — 474 R Emp^rise. — 
476 .ff lytell. — 477 R comen. — 478 R raise full. — 479 R child, ryche. — 480 R 
gud. — 481 iff furth, fro. — 482 R cald, saint Martyne. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 17 

J^ai broght pe childe furth in his way ; 

And at ])air<? parting gan ]'ai pray 

J?at he sold speke wordes nane 485 

Til seuyn dayes war cuwmen and gane : 

" p>an sal pou pas fro al pi payne." 

When J)is was said, fai turned ogayn. 

pe messagers and pe childe hende 

Toward pe court gan ])ai wende. 490 

When pe Emperiz herd ti]?and 
JJat J)e childe was ner^ cumand, 
A desterer sone gert sho dyght, 
And keped him with many a knyght. 
He louted hir and ]>am ilkane, 495 

Bot wordes wald he speke right nane. 
In court ))ai come within a while. 
pe Empmce thoght euer on gile ; 
Sho toke pe child pat was so hende, 
And vnto chamber gan pai wende ; 500 

And doun sho set him on hir bed ; 
And Florentine was ful adred. 
Sho said : " po\i ert of mekil prise, 
Hende and curtays, war and wise ; 
And sen )n fader has wedded me, 50J 

Gude reson es }?at I luf pe ; 
And so I do, pe soth to say. 
And )>arfore, p^ramor,^, I ])e pray 
]?at ]>ou me kys and luf me. 

And, sir, })i soiet sal I be. 510 

Vnto pe, sir, so God me rede, 
Haue I keped my maydenhed." 

Sho toke ])e childe obout ])e hals, 

483 J? child. — 484 /^ {jair partyng. — 485 J? suld. — 486 J? Till seuen days, 
comen. — 487 J? sail, pass, all. — 488 /? o gayne. — 4S9 J? messang^rs, child. — 
491 /? Emp^Hce, tythand. — 492 /? child, comand. — 493 J? scho. — 495 J? lowted. 

— 496 J? ryght. — 498 /? gyle. — 499 /i Scho, A/S. an erasure, doubtless of an e, 
after child. — 500 R chaumbre. — 501 i?doune scho sett. — 502 R fflorentyne, f ull. 

— 503 R Scho, mykell pryse. — 504 R curtase, wyse. — 506 R Gud. — 508 R J^arfor 
paramoz^re. — 510 R soiett sail. — 512 R maydenhede. — 513 R Scho, child. 



l8 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Bot al )'at fageing was ful fals. 

J>e childe made ay ful heuy cher<?, 515 

And wald noght speke on no maner^; [28 b] 

He turned oway with al his might. 

And als sone fan fe lady bryght 

Saw sho might noght turn his mode ; 

And for wa sho was nere wode. 520 

" Sir," sho said, " what ayles ])e ? 

Whi wiltou noght speke with me, 

And al }n wil, syr, wil I do?" 

He answerd nothing hir vnto. 

Sho saw pir gaudes might noght gain, 525 

)?arfor^ sho toke anoj'er trayn : 
Sho lete als sho war wode for wrath, 
And sone sho rafe eud'r-ilka klath, 
And als ]>e forors of ermyne, 

And couercheues of silk gude and fyne. 530 

Hir smok also sone rafe sho it, 
Als sho wer wode out of hir wit. 
Hir fair<? hare sho al to-drogh ; 
And sari noys sho made inogh. 

Sho al to-raced hir vesage, 535 

4tid cried "Harrow!" in grete rage. 

JJe Emp^rour^ was in ]?e hall, 
Carpand with his knightes all ; 
And when ))ai herd slike nois atid cri, 
Fast to chamber gan J'ai hy. 540 

J>ai fand })e Empmce al to-rent ; 
Hir hari?, hir face was fouly shent. 
JJe Emp(?rour(? was ful euil payd, 

514 ^all, fageyng, full. — 515 /? child, full. — 516 ^ na. — 517 i^ all, myght. — • 
519 R scho. — 520 R scho. — 521 R scho. — 522 R will Jjou. — 523 R all, will sir 
will. — 525 R Scho, hir instead of \>\x, myght, gayne. — 526 R )>arfor scho take ane 
other trayne. — 527 R Scho, scho, wrathe. — 528 R scho, of after rafe deleted, 
clathe. — 529 R furres. — 530 R couerches, syl'k gud. — 531 R all so, scho itt. — 
532 R schowar, witt. — 533 R fair, scho all to droghe. — 534 R sary, scho, I noghe. 
— 535 R Scho all to, visage. — 536 R cryed, gret. — 537 R Emp^rour. — 538 R 
knyghtes. — 539 R swilk noys, cry. — 540 R chaumber. — 54 1 -^ all to. — 542 R 
his face, foully schent. — 543 R emp^-rour, full euell. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 



19 



And vnto hir ful sone he said : 

" Tel me wha did )ns dishonowr*?, 545 

A?id sertes it sal be boght ful souri?." 

"J>is deuil," sho said, *' }7at her.? standes 

Has me shent ]ms with his handes ; 

Had je noght titt.fr cumen me till, 

With me he had done al his will. 550 

J>us he haues me al to-rent, 

Mi body for he wolde haue shent. 

He was neu.?r cumen, sir, of )n blode ; 

Ger bind him fast, for he es wode. 

He es a deuil, withowten drede ; 555 

'pzxioxe to pr<?son gers him lede. 

I tine mi wit, }'at wele wit je, 

And I leng^r opon hym se." 

JJan hastily }ie Emp^rowr^ 
Cald vnto his turmentoure, S^o 

And bad ])e traitur sold als sone 
Be nakend and in preson done, 
A>id beten als with skowrges sar^, [28 c] 
For his misdedis ajid his lar<f: 

^^And ger him speke if fat J'ou may; 565 

Her^ says he nowj'er ja ne nay. 
Bot if he speke, by God in heuyn, 
I sal ger sla his Maisters Seuyn." 

Alsone pan ]?e turmentoure 
Led )'e childe fra ])e Emp(?rowr^ 570 

Hastily \>e. p/rson vntill. 
JJat lyked many a man ful ill. 
J>e knyghtes asked whi it was ; 
J>e turmentoure tald pam fe case. 

544 R full, sayd. — 545 R Tell, \>q after did, dishon^wre. — 546 R sail, full. — 
547 R deuell scho. — 548 R schent. — 549 R yhe, tytter comew, tyll. — 550 R all. 
— 551 RbW. — 552 ^ wald, schent. — 553 R com&n. — S54i?bynd. — 555 i? deuell, 
vikk outen. — 556 R harfor. — 557 R tyne my witt, witt yhe. — 558 R lengar, 
him. — 559 R Emp^roure. — 561 R traytur suld. — 562 R nakkend. — 563 R 
skourges. — 564 R mysdedes. — 566 R nouther yha. — 567 R bi, heuen. — 568 R 
sail, seuen. — 570 R child fro, Emp^roure. — $71 R vntyll. — 572 R full. 



20 THE SEVEN SAGES 

J>ai bad }'e child sold haue na skath, 575 

Bot plente of mete and drink bath. 

J)e turmentour^ said: " Lattes me allane ; 

Mete ne drink sal him want nane." 

]7an ]'e knightes of grete valur<f 

Went tite vnto pe Emp^rowr^ ; 580 

J>ai blamed him for fat owtrage 

Withowten cownsail of his barn age. 

J'ai praied him to ses of his sorow, 

Atid gif pe childe respite til pe morow, 

A7id pan ger sla him, or els bren, 585 

By kownsail of his wisest men. 

J>at dai ]>e Emp^rour^ spared his son, 

And bad no harm pai sold him done ; 

Bot gif him mete atid drink at will, 

And hald him so in presown still. 590 

Ful wrath he was, fe soth to say, 

Bot }ms his son was saued pat day. 



Herd- Bigins J>e Fyrst Proces. 

On euyn late pe Emparowr^ 
Was broght to bed with grete honeor^. 
f>e Empmce, his bed-fere, 595 

Sighed and made sary cher^. 
J>e Emp^rour^ hir asked why. 
And sho answerd ful drerily. 
And said : " Series, pe soth I se, 
J>at into cuntre cuwen es he 6qo 

}?at sal in pine old age 

575 R suld, no skathe. — 576 R drynk bathe. — 578 R na drynk sail. — 
579 R knyghtes, gret valoure, MS. of above line. — 580 R tyte, empifroure. — 
581 R outrage. — 582 R y/iih outen counsail. — 583 R prayd, sese. — 584 R gyf, 
child respyte till to morow. — 585 R ger after And deleted. — 586 R Bi counsail. 

— 587 R day, sone. — 588 R harme, suld. — 589 R gyf, drynk. — 590 R prison 
styll. — 591 R ffull, iyW for to. — Heading R bygyns, process. — 593 R euen, 
Emp^roure. — 594 MS. e of hon&ore above t/ie line, R gret honoz^re. — 596 R Syghed. 

— 597 R Emp^rour, whi. — 598 R scho, full. — 600 R contra comen. — 601 R sail. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 21 

Reue ]>e al ]nne heritage." 

f>e Emp^'rowre said: " Wha sold so done?" 

" Sir," sho said, " ]n cursed son." 

He said: "Dame, lat alike wordes be, 605 

For ])at dai sal jiou neuer se 

]7at he sal haue any myght 

For to do me any vnryght." [28 d] 

"§is, sir," sho said, "pat dar I lay, 

For ]>ou saued })i son ]ns day, 610 

Als wele sal it like to J?e 

Als it did \>e pine-appel tre , 

Of his ymp j^at he forth broght." 

pe Emp^rouri? fan him bithoght : 

"Dame," he said, "I prai ])e, 615 

How was it of ]'e pine-appel tre .■* " 

And of his [ymp], how it byfell, 

pe Emp^Hce bigan to tell. 

Here Bygins pe First Tale of J7e Whyfe. 

Scho said : " Sir, whiluw in ])is town 
Wond a man of grete renown, 620 

He had ordaynd in his palays 
A fair^ gardine, ]>e romance sais. 
]7ar^in was mani trese grouand 
Als fair^ als on erth might stand. 
Omang al o))er, I tel J)e, 625 

J>are stode a faire pine-appel tre, 
With fair^ bowes a/id leues klene ; 
And vnder it was an herber grene. 
Vnder })at tre was his playing 
In time of solace and of resting. 630 

602 J? all, herytage. — 603 /? Empifroure, suld sa. — 604 /? scho sayd, sone. — 
605 Id slyke. — 606 /? day sail. — 607 J? sail. — 609 /? Yhis, scho. — 611 J? sail, 
lyke. — 612 J? dyd, pyne appeltre. — 617 MS. om. ymp, R bi fell. — 618 R \, of \>q. 
illegible. — Heading R bigyns, wyfe. — 619 i^ whilom, toune. — 620 R gret renoune. 

— 621 R ordaind. — 622 R fair gardyn, says. — 623 R many. — 624 R fair, myght. 

— 625 R all, tell. — 626 R fayre pyne, Appeltre. — 627 R fair, clene. — 628 R om. 
it, R ane. — 630 R tyme, restyng; R. om. second of. 



r Story I.-| 
L Arbor. J 



22 THE SEVEN SAGES 

<' So it bifel opon a day 
Fra hame ]>e burias toke \>e way 
For marchandise and chafar^ dere. 
He dwelt out mar<? pan half a ^er^; 
And eiter sone, when ]7at he might, 635 

Hame he toke ]>e wai ful right. 
He went sone on ]jat o))er day 
Into his gardine him to play, 
And to loke his pine-appel tre ; 
And par bisid sone gan he se . 640 

A litel ymp ]>at was noght lang ; 
And out of ])e tre rote it sprang. 
f>e burgase cald his gardiner^, 
And said : ' Belamy, go her.? ; 

Sese pou }h[s] ymp pat standes her(fby? 645 

Can pou me tel encheson why 
It waxes na mori? sen it bigan ? ' 
* §a, sir,' he said, ' I trow I kan ; 
]7is gret bogh and oper ma 

Haldes pe son oway parfra, 650 

So pat it mai noght wele thriue.' 
'pe burias bad klimb vp bilyue 
And hak oway pe grete bogh, [29 a] 
And lat pe ymp haue son inogh. 
pe gardener biliue was boun ; 655 

pe grete bogh he hagged down. 

" pe burias thoght it was wele done ; 
He bad hag of anoper sone. 
pe gardeners did als he him bad; 
He haged anoper with hert glad. 660 

J>ar^ pai leued nonkins thing 

631 J? bi fell. — 633 J? marchandyse. — 634 /? yhere. — 635 /? myght. — 
636 J? way full ryght. — 637 J? ^e tother. — 638 /? gardyne. — 639 /? pyne appeltre. 

— 640 J? Jiare be syde. — 641 J? lytell. — 643 J? buriase, gardynere. — 645 MS. bi- 

— 646 /? tell. — 647 J? no more. — 648 J? Yha. — 651 /? may, thryue. — 652 /? 
buriase, clymb. — 653 /? hag, gret. — 655 /? gardinere bi lyue, boune. — 656 /^ gret, 
haged doune. — 657 /? buriase. — 658 /? ana other. — 659 J? gardinere dyd. — ■- 
660 J? hagged ane oth^r of witk. — 661 I? nonekyns. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 23 

J>at sold let ]>e ymp to spring. 

f>e aid tre had his bewte lorn 

When his twa bowes owai war shorn. 

J>e ymp had rowm, and wex f ul fast ; 665 

J>e aid tre dried at ))e last. 

And pat was no ferly, godote ; 

For ])e ymp standes on ])e maist(f/' rote. 

" pe burias come anoj'er day 
Into )'at place him for to play. 670 

J>e song ymp stode grene in pat stede, 
Afid \>e aid tre was al dede. 
He cald his gardener to him par^, 
And asked if pe aid tre ded war*?. 
' §a, sir,' he said, ' ded es it right ; 675 

J>e Jong ymp haues al ]?e might. 
And for pe aid [tre] has so bene hewid, 
JJarfor.? es it al bishrewed.' 
J>e burias said : ' Sen it es ded, 

Lat it noght ocupi pis stede. 680 

Fel it doun or pou do dede, 
}7at pe jong ymp fair,? may sprede.' 

" Sir," sho said, " pus was pe tre 
Ded als I haue tald to pe, 

And hewen done and worthed to noght, 685 

For pe ymp pat it forth broght. 
And, sir," sho said, " so mot I the, 
]?e aid tre bitakens pe ; 
pe ymp vnto pi son so wode, 

J>at sprongen es out of pi blode. 690 

Sone he sal slike power haue. 
He bese pi maist^r and pou his knaue; 
And so es right, withowten fail. 

662 J? suld lett, spryng. — 663 J? lorne. — 664 J? oway, schorne. — 665 /? rowme, 
full. — 666 J? dryed. — 668 /? in. — 669 J? buriase com ane other. — 67 1 i? yhong. — 
672 J? all. — 673 /? gardinere. — 675 /? Yha, ryght. — 676 y? yhong, all, myght. 

— 677 MS. om. tre, R hewed. — 678 R J'arfor, all bi schrewed. — 679 R buriase. — 
680 R occupy, sted. — 681 R ffell, doune. — 682 R yhong, fair. — 683 R scho. 

— 685 R doune. — 687 R scho. — 691 R sail slyke. — 693 R ryght wzt/^outen fayle. 



24 ' THE SEVEN SAGES 

Sen )'0u wil trow na gude cowsail, 

pariore so sal bifal of )>e 695 

Als did of ]>e pine-appel tre." 

" Series, dame," said ])e Emp^rouri?, 
"J>at war a fowl misauenturt' ; 
Bot sertes it sal noght swa, 

Whils I haue might to ride a»d ga, [29 b] 700 

And, dame, I hete ])e sekerly, 
He sal be ded tomorn arly." 
And }>usgat passed ouer \>zt nyght. 
p>e first tale ]ms endes right. 

Here Bygins J>e Secund Prices. 

J>e Emp^rowr^ rase on ]>e morn, 705 

And gert feche his son him biforn. 
He bad bilyue ]>ai sold him hang 
On high galows and on Strang. 
pe knightes and al \>e menje 

For ])e childe had grete pete, 710 

]:>at he sold to ded be dight 
Al with wrang and noght with right. 
J>an come rideand Maistifr Bausillas 
]:>at an of ])e childes maist<?rs was. 
He saw ]>e childe so hard bistad; 715 

For him his hert was vnglad. 
Toward pe galows )'e child gan far^. 
J>e Maist^r went to court with car^. 
When he come at ]'e palays gate, 
He lighted and leuid his hors ]>ar^at; 720 

And fast he hied into ))e hall, 

694 i? will, gud counsaile. — 695 /? \>2.rior, sail bi fall. — 696 /? pyne appel tre. 

— 698 J? foule mysauentoure. — 699 J? sail, MS. om. be. — 700 R myght, ryde. — 
701 R sykerly. — 702 R sail, arely. — 703 R l)usgate. — 704 R fyrst, ryght. — 
Heading R bygyns, process. — 705 R einp,frour rays. — 707 R suld. — 708 R hegh. 

— 709 J*? knyghtes, all, meneyhe. — yioR child, gret. — 711 R suld, dyght. — 712 R 
All, ryght. — 713 R rydeand, Bansillas.^ — 714 R ane. — 715 R child. — 719 R 
yhate. — 720 .ff lyghted, leued, Jpare ate. — 721 R hyed. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 25 

Bifori? ]>e 'Emperoure and \q. knightes all. 

He hailsed \% Emp^rour^ sone sertayn, 

A7id greuosly he loked ogayne. 

He said : " God gif fe euil fyne 725 

For J)e techeing of son myne." 

" Syr," said Maist^-r Bausillas, 
" Whi er je greued and for what case ? 
§e war won to be meke atid milde, 
Atid now with wrang will sla fi childe." 730 

J>an answerd ]'e Emp^rowr^: 
"J?ou sal be hanged, loseniowr^; 
Mi son vnto jow I bitoke 
For to ler^ hym on J^e boke ; 

§e haue him teched on wrang maner<ir; 735 

And ]>at je sal aby ful der^. 
§e haue reft my son his speche ; 
J>e deuil of hel I jow biteche ! 
And he wald haue forlayn my wif ; 
J>arfor^ sal na man saue his lyfe ; 740 

And to ded sal je al be done, 
]7at better sold haue teched my son." 

" Sir," said Maist<?r Bausillas, 
"]7at war grete wrang, to safe jour*? grace. 
Al if pi son had wrethed ]n wife, [29 c] 745 

Wald fou parfor^ lose his lyfe ? " 

He said : " I fand my wife al rent, 
Hir har^ and hir face fowly shent ; 
And whoso es funden hand-haueing. 
It es no nede of witnesing." 750 

J7e maist.?r said: "Sir, no man sale 

722 J? Bifor, Emp^rour, knyghtes. — 723 y^ Emp^rour. — 725 i^ gyf, euell. — 
726 J? techyng. — 727 /? Sir, Bansillas. — 72S >? yhe. — 729 J? Yhe, myld. — 
730 J? child. — 731 ^ Emp,froure. — 732 /? sail, losenioure. — 723 ^ yhow, betoke. 
— 734 /? him, buke. — 735 /? Yhe. — 736 J? yhe sail, full. — 737 ^ Yhe. — 738 R 
deuell, hell, yhow be teche. — 739 /? forlayne, wyfe. — 740 /? )>arfor sail no. — 
741 /? sail yhe all bi. — 742 J? suld, sone. — 743 /? Bansillas. — 744 /^ gret, saue 
yhour. — 745 J? All, wyfe. — 746 J? \,a.rior. — 747 J? all. — 748 7? foully schent. — 
749 /? fonden hand haueyng. — 75© ./? witnesyng. 



26 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Sadly trow a stepmoders tale ; 
For J)air^ bolt es ful sone shot, 
Titter to ill pan til gude note. 

If ])0U for hir pi son so slase, 755 

On pe mu« bifall swilk a case 
Als did vntil a gentil knight 
For his grehund pat was wight." 
J>e Empifrowr^ pat tale gan frayn, 
And pe maist^T sayd ogayn : 760 

" Sir, whils pat I tel my tale 
§owr^ son might suffer mekil bale ; 
}?an war my trauail al forlorn. 
J>arfori? do bring him vs biforn 

Atid respite him for mi saying, 765 

And je sal her^f a wonder thing." 
]?e Emp^rrour^ said: "Respite I ^nm grant." 
And hastily went a sergant, 
And broght pe child into pe hall 
Biforn his fader and pe knightes all. 770 

He lowted his fader and pam ilkane, 
Bot wordes wald he speke nane. 
J?e Emp<?rour^ said: " Maist^r Bawsillas, 
Tel now forth pi ferly case." 
rstory ii.-| 

L Canis. J 

f>e Secund Tale, of Maist<?r Bausillas. 

He said : " Sir, in pis same cete, 775 

On a day of pe Trinite, 
Was ordand to be a bowrdice 
Of nobil knightes of mekil prise. 
In a medow pai made pair^ play. 

753 ^ hair, full, schote. — 754 j^ till gud. — 755 -^ ^^ son for hir. — 756 ^ men 
fall. — 757 R vntyll, gentell knyght. — 758 R, A, E Oi instead of Y ox. — 759 i? 
Emp^rour, frayne. — 760 R said ogayne. — 761 R tell. — 762 R Yhowr, myght, 
mykell. — 763 R all for lome. — 764 R harfor, bryng, bi forne. — 765 R respyte, 
my. — 766 R yhe sail. — 767 R Empi?rour, respyte, grtzunt. — 768 R sergeaunt. — 
769 i*? vn to. — 770 R Bi for, knyghtes. — 773 R Emp^rour, Bansillas. — TT\ R 
Tell, furth. — Heading R Bansillas. — 777 R ordaynd, bourdyse. — 778 R noble 
knyghtes, mykell pryse. — 779 -^ mydow, bair. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 2/ 

Afid )ms bifel on })at same day, 780 

J)e knight ))at I of tel ]ns stownde, 

Had at hame a fairif grehownde. 

Biside ))e medow was his maneri?, 

Al vmclosed with a reueri?. 

Of aid werk was ilka wall, 785 

Ful of creuices and holes oner all.' 

J>e knight had wed a fair^ lady ; 

A fair^ childe sho haued him by. 

J)ar<r war thre norices it to jeme ; 

An gaf at sowke, als it wald seme; [29 d] 790 

J>e toper wasshes it a?id bathes, 

Makes pe bed, atid dons ))e clathes; 

J>e thrid wasshes ))e shetes oft, 

Afid rokkes it on slepe soft. 

" J>is grehund pat I ar^ of talde 795 

Was wonder wight and parto balde ; 
And parto was he so wele taght, 
JJe knight wald gif him for none aght. 
J7e knight was armed in nobil wede, 
And sone lepe vp on his stede 800 

With sheld on sholder and shaft in hand 
To iust with knightes of pe land. 
Sone he come into pe feld. 
J?e lady lay euer and byhelde, 

Vp in pe kastell on a vice, 805 

Whar^ sho might se pe fair<? bourdice. 
J?e norices said pat pai wald ga 
For to se pe gamyn alswa ; 
And al thre pai went out of pe hall 

780 R bi fell. — 781 /? knyght, tell, stounde. — 782 R fair grehounde. — 783 R 
Bisyde, mydow. — 784 R All, ryuere. — 786 R ffuU, creuyces. — 787 R knyght, 
fair. — 788 R fair child scho. — 789 R bar, tre noryssches, yheme. — 790 R Ane, 
souke. — 791 R he [or Wt\ obliterated, other wesches. — 793 R thred wesches. — 
795 ^ grehound, tald. — 796^ )>are to bald. — 797 R bare to. — 798 R knyght, 
gyf. — 799 R knyght, noble. — 801 i? scheld, schulder, schaft. — 802 R knyghtes. 
— 803 R felde. — 804 R bi helde. — 805 R castell, vyce. — 806 R scho myght, 
fair bourdyse. — 807 R noryces. — 808 R gamen all swa. — 809 R all tre, MS. iii 
above line, perhaps in later hattd. 



28 THE SEVEN SAGES 

And set ]>e credil vnder a wall. 8io 

J>e childe famn slepand it lay. 

Al thre pai went to se pe play 

At a prnae place bisyde. 

And in ]?at time pus gan bitide : 

"A nedder was norist in pe wall, 815 

And herd fe noys of riding all. 
He loked out to se ]»at wonder, 
And saw ]>e childe stand him vnder. 
Vnto f>e erth he went onane ; 

J>e childe he hopid to haue slane. 820 

J>e grehund wanders ])ar^obout, 
And sese how fe nedder crepis out ; 
And sone ])an gan he him asail, 
A7id toke him ful tite bi pe tayl. 
And sone fe nedder bate him sar/?, 825 

J>at he durst hald him na mar*?. 
Out of his mowth when he was gane, 
Vnto fe credel he crepis onane ; 
He fanded fast fe childe to styng. 
J>e grehund ogayn to him gan flyng; 830 

A7id sone he hentes [him] by fe bak, 
And al obout his eres gan shak. 
Bitwix J»e nedder ajid fe grehownd 
J>e credil weltered on fe grownd 
Vp so down with J^air^ fyghting, 835 

So ])at fe childe lay grouelyng. 
J>e four<? stulpes held vp pe childe, [30 a] 
J>at he was now))er hurt ne filde. 
f>e nedder bate pe grehund sare, 

810 R sett, credell. — 811 R child. — 812 R All tre. — 813 R besyde. — 814^ 
tyme, be tyde. — 815 R noryst. — 816 R rydeyng. — 818 j? child. — 820 ^ child, 
hoped. — 821 i?grehound wanidres. — 822 R crepes. — 823 ^assayle. — 824 R full 
tyte be, tayle. — 826 R no. — 827 R mouthe. — 828 R credell, crepes. — 829 R 
fandes, child. — 830 R grehound. — 831 MS. om. him, ^ bi. — 832 R all o bout, 
schak. — 833 i? grehound. — 834 R credell weltifrd, ground. — 835 i? Vp sa doune, 
t>air fyghtyng. — 836 R child. — 837 R four stolpes, child. — 838 R nouther, 
fyld. — 839 R grehound. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 29 

Buth bak and side and eueraywhar^. 840 

f>e grehund bledes, |)e nedder alswa; 
Grete batail was bitwix pam twa. 

"At pe last J)e grehund ]?e neder slogh, 
A7id al to peces he hym drogh. 

By ]'ai had done, withouten dout, 845 

Al was blody pam obout. 
When ]>e bourdice was broght til ende, 
J>e knightes wald no lenger lende, 
Bot ilka man his hernayse hent, 

And hastily hame er ])ai went. 850 

]?e norices went to hall in hy ; 
And f ul sone ])ai war sary : 
f>e credel with J'e childe j^ai fand; 
Turned on pe stulpes pai saw it stand. 
J>ai wend J)e childe war^ ded for ay, 855 

J?arfor^ pai luked noght how it lay; 
Al obout j>ar^ saw pai blode. 
J?ai had slike wa pai wex ner^ wode ; 
Grete sorow had pai in pair^ hert. 
J^e grehund cried, so euyl \i\m smert ; 860 

J?ai wend he had bene wode and wilde, 
And in his wodnes slane pe childe. 
pe lady oft in swown gan fall 
Euin omang J)am in pe hall. 

' Alias,' sho said, ' pat I was born ! 865 

Es my f air^ childe now ira me lorn ? ' 
J>e knight hame come in pat tyde, 
And his men on ilka side ; 
He sese pam wepe and sorow make, 
Ilkane for pe childes sake ; 870 

840 R Both, syde. — 841 /* grehound, all swa. — 842 R Gret. — 843 R grehound, 
nedder. — 844 R all, him. — 845 R Be. — 846 R All. — 847 R bourdyse, till. — 
848 R knyghtes, langer. — 849 R hemays. — 851 R noryces. — 852 R full. — 
853 R credell, child. — 855 R child war. — S56 R J'arfor.- 857 R All.— 858 R 
slyke. — 859 R Gret, l>air. — 860 R grehound cryed, euell. — 861 R wyld. — 862 R 
wodenes, child. — 863 R swoun. — 864 R Euen. — 865 R scho sayd. — 866 R fair 
child. — 867 R knyght.— 868 R syde. 



30 THE SEVEN SAGES 

J>e knight )>am asked what ]>3.m was, 
And son pai tald him al ]>e cas. 

" J>e lady said : ' Sir, ]>i grehunde 
Has etin our^ childe on )ns grownde. 
Bot if J'ou reue him sone his life, 875 

Miself I sal sla with my knyfe.' 
]7e knight went withowten let ; 
His fayr^ grehund sone him met ; 
He ran obout both her^ and j^are, 
And berked fast, so felde he sar,? ; 8S0 

Of rinyng might he haue no rest: 
Ipe nedder had venu;« on him kest ; 
He fawned his lord fast with his tail. 
And ])e knyght, for he wald noght fayl, [30 b] 
With his swerd on J'e rig he hittes, 885 

And sone in sonder he him slittes. 

" f>e grehund es ded in fat place. 
J>e knight vnto J'e credil gase ; 
Ay lay j)e childe fast slepeand. 

And ])e wemen sar^ wepeand. 890 

J^e knyght findes \>e nedder ded, 
In peces casten in })at stede ; 
J>e credil was blody and ]>g grund 
Of })e nedder and ]>e grehund. 

J>e credel es turned, ]>e child es quik ; 895 

J>ar^of haue })ai grete ferlik. 
He sese ]>e hund })e nedder slogh; 
J>an ]>e knight had sorow inogh ; 
Ful grete greuance to him bigan. 
He said : ' Sorow cum to fat man, 900 

871 ^ knyght, \>a.n for }>am, \>at /or haw, MS. hat ^ywhat obliterated. — 872 R 
sone, all, case. — 873 R grehounde. — 874 R eten our child, grounde. — 875 R 
lyfe. — 876 R sail. — 877 R knyght, w/t/; outen lett. — 878 R fair grehound, mett. 
— 880 R barkett, feld. — 881 y? rynyng myght. — 883 R tayle. — 884 R fayle. — 
885 R ryg, hyttes. — 886 R slyttes. — 887 R grehound. — 888 R knyght, credell. — 
889 R child, slepand. — 890 R wepand. — 891 R fyndes, dede. — 893 R credell, 
bludy, ground. — 894 R grehound. — 895 R credell, quyk. — 896 R gret ferlyk. — 
898 R knyght. — 899 R gret, tyliybr to, bygan. — 900 R com. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 3 I 

And sertanly right so it sale, 

J'at euer trowes any womans tale. 

Alias,' he said, ' for so did I ! ' 

JJarwith he murned and made grete cri. 

He kald his menje les and mar^, 905 

And shewed pam his sorow sar^, 

How his childe was hale and sownde, 

And slane was his gude grehound 

For his pr<7wes and his gude dede, 

And also for his wiues rede. 910 

" ' A ! ' he said, ' sen I )>e slogh, 
I miself sal by pe wogh ; 
I sal ken ojier knightes, sanz fail, 
To trow noght in ])air^ wife counsail' 
He set him down \^zxe in fat thraw, 915 

And gert a grome his ger^ of draw ; 
Al his gay ger^ he gaf him fra, 
And al barfote forth gan he ga, 
Withowten leue of wife or childe. 
He went into ])e woddes wilde, 920 

And to j'e forest fra al men, 
J>at nane sold of his sorow ken. 
J>ar^ tholed he mani a sari stownde 
For sorow of his gude grehownde ; 
And for |)e kounsail of his wife 925 

In sorow ]ms he led his life. 

" So mai ))0u haue, Sir Emp^rour^, 
Sorow, afid shame, and dishonours, 
To sla ))i son ogains J^e right, 
Als })e grehund was with fe knyght ; 930 

901 R sertainly ryght. — 902 R wemens. — 903 R sayd, dyd. — 904 R gret cry. 

— 905 R cald, menyhe. — 906 R schewed. — 907 R child, sounde. — 908 R gre- 
hounde. — 909 R gxxA. — 910 R all so, wyves. — 912 7? mi self sail bi. — 91 3 /'sail, 
knyghtes, faile. — 914 R hair, counsaile. — 915 R sett, doune. — 917 R All. — 
918 R all bare fote furth. — 919 R wit/t outen, child. — 920 R wild. — 921 ^ fro all. 

— 922 R suld. — 923 R many, sary stounde. — 924 R gud grehounde. — 925 R 
counsail, wyfe. — 926 R lyfe. — 927 R may. — 928 R schame. — 929 R ogayns, 
ryght. — 930 R grehound. 



32 THE SEVEN SAGES 

For he was fel and ouer hastif, [30 c] 
And wroght by kounsayl of his whif." 

J)e Emp^rour^ [swar^] : " By Ih^i-u fre, 
So sal noght bifal to me ! 

And, maist^r, I hete pe hardily, 935 

J>is day sal noght my son dy." 
" Sir," said Maist^r Bausillas, 
" Trowes my kownsail in ])is cas ; 
For al pis werld wil })e despise. 

To trow \\ whif and leue ])e wise." 940 

J>e Emp^rowr^ said : " ]?at war^ reson ; 
I sal noght by hir kownsayl done." 
J>e childe ogayn to prison es sent ; 
p>e court departes, ))e maisti?/' es went. 

Here Bigins p'e Thrid Prices. 

When al war p^-z-ted out of ]'at place, 945 

J?e Emp<?rour^ to chamber gase. 
J>ar/f he findes his lady ; 
Sho sobbed and sighed ful sarily, 
"Whannow," he said, "dame, ertow wrath?" 
" ga, sertes," sho sayd, and swar^ grete ath. 950 

He said : " Dame, tel me who ]'e greues." 
Sho said: " ]?at lad ]'at ouer lang lifes, 
J?at ))OU calles ])ine owin sone. 
To euil ded might he be done ! 

Bot if ])ou of him tak vengance, 955 

Of ]'e sal fal swilk a chance. 
He wil J'e bring to swilk ending 

931 R fell, hastyfe. — 932 R counsail, wyfe. — 933 R Emp^rour, MS. om. swar^, 
R hi. — 934 R sail, bi fall of me. — 936 R sail. — 937 R Bansillas. — 938 R coun- 
sail, case. — 939 R all, world will, despyse. — 940 R wife, wyse. — 941 MS. roson, 
R Emp^rowr, war resone. — 942 R sail, be, cownsail. — 943 R child. — Heading 
R bigyns, thred process. — 945 R all. — 946 R Emp^rour, chaumbre. — 947 R 
fyndes. — 948 R Scho, syghed full saryly. — 949 R wrathe. — 950 R Yha, scho 
said, gret athe. — 951 R tell. — 952 R Scho, lyfes. — 953 -A" awen. — 954 R euell, 
myght. — 955 R vengaunce. — 956 R On instead 0/ Oi, sail fall, chaunce. — 957 R 
will, bryng, endyng. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 



33 



rStory III.-| 
L Aper. J 



Als )'e wilde bar^ had with clowing." 

}?e Emp^rour^ said : " Dame, tel me mar<?, 

How it was of j'e wild bar^." 960 

"Sir," sho said, "gladly I will, 

Bot luke je tak gude tent partill." 



pe Thrid Tale Tald ]>e Wyfe. 

" Sir, a litel her^ by west 
Was su?«time a faire forest. 

A wilde bar^ was bred parin 965 

Fra a gryse til a grete swyn. 
Na man dorst walk in ])at forest 
For ferdnes of )>at wilde beste. 
In middes ])e forest was a playn ; 
J>ar^ stode a tre of hawes sertayn ; 970 

Fair^ an^ rede a;/i/ ripe ]iai war^. 
JJeder was wont )'e wilde bard' ; 
Ilka day he went jiartill, 
Vnder pe tre to ete his fill. [30 d] 

"Bifel ]ms in ]'at somer tide, 975 

A bird jemed bestes |'ar biside ; 
A beste fra him was raiked oway. 
He went to seke it al a day, 
Ah^ by |)is tre of hawes he come. 
Of pam he toke, for he had tome ; 9S0 

In his hode he gederd ]'ar<f; 
-(4«(/ in pat cu;«es ]>e wilde bar^. 
When ]'e bird hi;« saw, he was ful rad ; 
He might noght fle, so was he stad ; 

958 J? wyld, clowyng. — 959 /? Empi?rour, tell. — 960 J? wyld. — 961 A" scho. — 
962 J^ yhe, gud, bare tyll. — Heading R thred. — 963 R lytell, bi. — 964 R som tyme, 
fair. — 965 R wild, J>are ine. — 966 R gryss tyll, gret swyne. — 967 R No, durst, 
foreste. — 968 R wild. — 969 R myddes, playne. — 970 R sertayne. — 97^ R ffair, 
rype. — 972 7? )>ider, wyld. — 973 R }>are tyll. — 974 R ett, fyll. — 975 R Bi fell, 
tyde. — gy6 R hyrd yhemed, bare bi syde. — 977 ^ fro, rayked. — 978 i? all. — 
979 R bi. — 982 R comes, wild. — 983 R hyrd, full. — 9S4 R myght. 



34 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Into ])e tre he clymbes on high, 985 

And pe bar^ ))an come him negh. 

Hawes findes he ferly fone 

Forby he was won to done ; 

He loked vp and saw ]ie bird; 

Stil he sat and noght he stird. 990 

" ]?e bar^ for tene j^an whet his tuskes, 
And wrot ))e erth vp al in buskes ; 
Out of his mowth J)e fame was white. 
Vnto ]>e tre fast gan he smite ; 

J>e tre wagged als it wald fall ; 995 

J>an was pe hirdman ferd at all. 
Bot sone he fand a medcine gode : 
His hand he put tite in his hode, 
And kastes down fast of pe hawes. 
]7an )'e bar^ on ])e grund gnawes ; 1000 

And when his wambe was filled wele, 
On his knese ])an gan he knele. 
And son p^vcayued pe hirdman 
J'at )>e bar*? to fall bygan ; 

He castes him down hawes inogh, 1005 

And cumes himseli down by a bogh. 
By ])e left hand he hinges ])ar<?, 
And with ])e right hand he clowes ]'e bar^. 
Fast he rubed him on pe rig, 
And ])e bare bigins to lyg. loio 

" Sejnn he clowed him on pe wambe. 
And he lay doun meke als a lambe ; 
He closed his yen als he wald slepe, 
And ])e hird pan toke gude kepe: 
Preuely he drogh his knife, 1015 

985 /? klymbes, hegh. — gS-j J? fyndes. — 988 i? ffor bi. — 989 /? luked, hyrd. — 
990 Ji Styll, satt, styrd. — 992 J? wrott, all. — 994 J^ smyte. — 996 J? hyrd man. — 
997 J? medsyn gude. — 998 J? tyte. — 999 J? doune. — 1000 /? ground. — looi F 
wamb, fyld. — 1003 i? sone p^rsayued, hyrd man. — 1004 y?bi gan. — 1005 i? kastes, 
doune. — 1006 /? comes, doune bi. — 1007 /^ Bi, hynges. — 1008 J? ryght, klowes, 
J? om. hand. — 1009 R rubbed, ryg. — loio R bi gyns. — loi i R Sithen. — loi 2 R 
doune. — 1013 R eghen. — 1014 R hyrd, gud. — 1015 R knyfe. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 35 

And reft f»e wilde bar^ his life. 

Al if he wild atid wighter war^?, 

JJe hirdman ]ms has slane j^e bar<f; 

He lete him ly and went his way. 

Sir Emp^rouri?, by fe I say, 1020 

]?ou ert }>e bar<?, fe maist(?rs fe clowes ; [31a] 

With Jjair^ fals tales, pat pou trowes, 

]?ai sal so counsail ))e and rede 

Til ))ai haue broght J>e to ]'i ded." 

He said : " I wate by wham ]70u menes, 1025 

Bot it sal noght be als ]'0U wenes ; 

For sertes, dame, arly tomorow 

Sal my son be ded, with sorow ! " 

"Sir," sho said, "fan dose j^ou right." 

J>us pai passed ouer J^at night, 1030 

And sleped till ]'e dai gan spring. 

}?e thrid tale jms mase ending. 

Here Bygyns p>e Ferth Proces. 

J>e day es cuwen, ]>e night es gane ; 
]?e Emp^rouri? rase sone onane. 

J>ai opind jates of \q. palays, 1035 

And in come knightes and buriase. 
When ))ai war cuwen into j^e tour^, 
Omang J^am come \q. Empi?rowr<?. 
His turmentour^ sone gert he call. 
Bad bring his son^ forth into hall ; 1040 

He did his lordes biding biliue. 
Omang j^am fan was mekil striue ; 

1016 R wild, lyfe. — 1017 R All, wyld. — 1018 R hyrd man. — 1020 R Emp^rour. 

— 1022 R hair. — 1023 R sail. — 1024 R Till, dede. — 1025 R be. — 1026 R sail. — 
1027 R arely. — 1028 R Sail. — 1029 R scho, ryght. — 1030 R nyght. — 1031 R 
tyll, day, spryng. — 1032 R thred, endyng. — Heading MS. iiii., R bigyns, process. 

— 1033 J? p ^ pe illegible, comen, nyght. — 1034 R Emp^rour rayse. — 1035 R 
opend yhates. — 1036 R knyghtes. — 1037 R comen. — 1038 R Emp^roure. — 
1040 R bryng, furth into ^e hall. — 1041 R dyd, bydyng bi lyue. — 1042 R 
mykell stryue. 



36 THE SEVEN SAGES 

For ]>e Emp^rour<? was so boun 

To sla his son ogayns resoun ; 

He wald spar^ him for nothing, " 1045 

Bot gert do of al his clething, 

An^ bad ]>am bete him in ]jat tide 

Til blode brast out on ilka side. 

He bad, when he was sogat bet, 

pai sold him hang on a gebet, 1050 

And pat ]'ai sold let for nothing. 

J'an led pai him forth. for to hing. 

lpa.i led him thurgh ])at riche cete ; 
Of his pain was grete pete. 

Mani men of grete renown 1055 

Folowd him out of pe toun ; 
And al pai made grete noys and cri. 
And said with wrang pat he sold dy. 
And right omang J>am in ]>e prese 
Come ridand Maist^r Anxilles, 1060 

JJat an of his Seuyn Maistt-rs was; 
For his decipil he said ''Alias ! " 
J>e puple cried to him in fer^ : 
" Maister, help now ])i scolere." 

"pe maister rides fast fra pam all, 1065 

And hies to pe Emp^rowres hall. [31 b] 
J>ar^ he findes ]>e Emp^rowr^; 
He gretes him with grete honowr^. 

J>e Emp^rourd' answers with ill, 
And pus he said pe mayster vntill : 1070 

" Mekil mawgre mot pou haue 
For pe teching of my knaue ; 



1043 /? boune. — 1044 /? resoune. — 1046 7? all. — 1047 /^ tyde. — 104S jR Till, 
syde. — 1049 ^ so gate bett. — 1050 /? suld, gebett. — 105 1 A' at instead of \>zX, 
suld lett. — 1052 R furth, hyng. — 1053 R ryche. — 1054 R payn, gret. — 1055 ^ 
Many, gret renoune. — 1056 R toune. — 1057 R all, gret, cry. — 1058 R suld. — 
1059 R ryght. — 1060 R rydeand. — 1061 R ane, seuen. — 1062 R disciple. — 1063 
R pople cryed. — 1065 R rydes. — 1066 R hyes fast to )ie emp<?roiirs. — 1067 R 
fyndes, Emp^roure. — 1068 R gret honoure. — 1069 R Emp^rrour. — 1070 R sayd, 
maister vntyll. — 1071 /? Mykell. — 1072 A' techy ng. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 37 

ge haue serued litil mede, 
And so sal ge haue for jowr^ dede." 
]?e maist^r said : " Emp^rour^ of prise, 1075 

§e war won to be war and wise ; 
Now]'er sold je bete ne ban 
For ])e wordes of a woman ; 
For wemen wil be ligh[t]ly wrath, 
And cownsail comuwly to skath. 1080 

§e sold noght sla jowre son forthi, 
Bot if ge wist he war worthi. 
If je him sla ajid vs al seuyn, 
I pray to Ihesn Crist in heuyn 

J>at vnto 50W mot fal si ike case 1085 

Als did to Maist<fr Ypocrase, 
J>at slogh his neuow for his lar<f." 
J>e Emp^rour^ said : " Tel me mar^." 
]?e maist^r answerd wordes milde : 
" Sir, and ])0U wil saue )n childe, 1090 

And gif him respite al ]ns day, 
J>an pe soth I sal )?e say 
Of Ypocras and his neuow," 
\>e Emp^rour^ said : " I grant h'vn trew." 
Eft^r ])e childe sone war pai boun, 1095 

To put him ogayn to presown. 
Bot first ])ai broght him to ]>e towr<?, 
Bifor^ his fader, ])e Emp^rowr^. 
"pdire gederd al ])e cownsail hale, 
And j'e maist^r bigan hys tale. "oo 

1073 R Yhe, lytell. — 1074 R sail yhe, yhour. — 1075 i? Emp^rour, pryse. — 
1076 R Yhe, wyse. — 1077 R Nouther suld yhe. — 1079 ^^- lighly. ^ will, lyghtly 
wrathe. — 1080 R counsail comonly, skathe. — 1081 R Yhe suld, yhour. — 1082 R 
yhe, worthy. — 1083 R yhe, all seuen. — 1084 R heuen. — 1085 R yhow, fall slyke. 

— 1086 R dyd. — 1088 i? Emp^rour, sir tell. — 1089 7? myld. — 1090 A" will, child. 

— 1 09 1 R gyf, respyte all. — 1092 R sail. — 1093 -^ Ypocrase. — 1094 R Empirrour, 
graunt. — 1095 R boune. — 1096 R ogayne, pr<?soune. — 1097 R trowr. — 1098 R 
Bi for, Emp^roure. — 1099 R all, counsail. — 1 100 R his. 



38 THE SEVEN SAGES 

rStory IV.H 
L Medicus. 



J>e Ferth Tale Sayd MaystdT Anxilles. 

"Syr," he said, " somtym it was 
A grete clerk ])at hight Ypocr^rs. 
Of sotelte might none be slike, 
Ne of lechecraft was none him like. 
With him was dweland his neuow 1105 

For to lere of his vertu. 
pe childe was ful sharp of wit; 
Al ]'at he saw sone lerid he it. 
Ypocrase p^rcayued hys lave, 

And thoght he wald shew him na mar^; mo 

For wele he trowed, on euyn and morn, [31c] 
J>at j^e childe sold pas him byforn. 
J>e child p^/'cayued his emes will, 
And wroght al p;ruely and styll, 
Vntil he kowth al ]'e maistri ; in 5 

Ypocr^s was ful wrath forjn. 

"In )»at time bifel J'is thing: , 

Of Hungery ])e riche king 
Had a son l>at ful seke was, 

Afid he sent eft^r Maist^r Ypocras, 1120 

And bad him com his son to hele, 
A?id he sold gif him florines fele. 
Ypocras thoght lath to gane ; 
He calles his neuow sone onane, 
And bides him wend vnto ))at land 11 25 

To tak j)e king son vnder hand : 
' If ]50u can do him no medcine, 

Heading R said maist^r. — iioi i*? Sir, sayd som tyme. — 1102 R gret, ypocrase. 
— 1 103 R myght, slyke. — 1 104 i? lyke. — 1 105 R dwelland. — 1 106 R vertow. — 
iio-j R child, full scharp, witt. — 1108 R All, lered. — 1109 R persayued his. — 
1 1 10 ^ schew, no. — 1 1 1 1 R euen, morne. — 1 1 1 2 A" child suld, bi forne. — 1 113^ 
chyld persayued. — 1114 R all. — 11 15 R vn tyll, couth all, maistry. — 1116 Ipo- 
ci ase, full. — 1117^ tyme be fell. — 1 1 1 8 A' ryche kyng. — 1 1 1 9 A' full. — 1\20 R om. 
he {perhaps an erasure), ypocrase. — 1122 A' suld gyf, florance. — 1123 A* Ypocrase, 
lathe. — 1 125 R byddes. — 1126 R kyng. — 1127 R kan, medcyne. 






THE SEVEN SAGES 



39 



J>an sal I send him som of myne.' 

J7ai ordand J)e childe a gude palfray ; 

On he strides and wendes his way. 1130 

Wen he was cuwen bifor^ ])e king, 

Vnto his son he gan him bring; 

And sone when pat he saw |'e childe, 

He spak vnto him wordes milde. 

He tastes ]>e child syn and vayne, 1135 

And says he suffers mekil payne. 

" J^an })e leche askes a glas ; 
An vrinal sone broght him was. 
J>e child made wat^r als ])ai him kend ; 
pe leche loked what might him mend. 1140 

In ]>e wat<?r he saw, sanz fail, 
\>e child was geten out of sposail. 
Vnto him pan he cald \>e quene, 
And said : ' Madame, tel vs bitwene 
Wha has getin pis child of )»e ; 1145 

On al maner^ wit bus me.' 
Sho said : ' Nane oper bot pe king.' 
'Madame,' he said, 'pat es gabi;/g ; 
He was neuer cumen of kynges strene.' 
Sho said: ' Lat al slike wordes bene, 11 50 

Or sertes I sal ger bete pe so 
pat pou sal neuer ride ne go.' 

" ' Madame,' he said, ' so mot I the, 
So may noght pi son heled be ; 
J>ou most tel me al pe case 1155 

How pat pis childe getin was. 
Sertes, dame, it most be so. 
Or els pi son sal neuer go. [31 d] 

1 128 /? sail. — 1 129 R ordaind, child, gud. — 1130 J^ A«d on, strydes. — 1 131 I^ 
When, comen bi for, kyng. — 11 32 y? bryng. — 1133 ^ child. — 1134 j*? myld. — 
1136 J? suffirs mikell. — 1138 J? Ane vrynall. — 11 40 J? luked. — 1141 J? fayle. 
— 1 142 /? sposaile. — 1144 J? tell. — 1145 /? geten, chid. — 1146 J? all, witt. — 
1 147 J? Scho, none, kyng. — 1148 J^ gabyng. — 1149 V? comen. — 1 150 /? Scho, all 
swilk. — 1 1 51 /^ sail, AfS. W above line {pale, perhaps a later hand). — 1152 R 
sail, ryde. — 1 1 55 R tell, all. — 1 1 56 A" child geten wase. — 1 1 58 j'? sail. 



40 THE SEVEN SAGES 

I mai do )n childe na bote 

Bot if pou tel me crop and rote.' 1160 

" JJe quene said : ' Sen it most be so, 
pou most tel it til na mo ; 
For a7id my kounsail war vndone, 
Sertes I mund be shent ful sone.' 
*Dame, by ded pat I sal degh, 1165 

I sal neuer mor^ pe wregh.' 
* Sir,' sho said, ' so it bifell, 
J>is es J?e twe[l]ft jere in Auerell, 
J>e Eril of Nauern hider gan ride. 
With mani knightes and mekil pride, 1170 

With my lord him for to play ; 
And her<f he dwelled moni a day. 
And sone bigan I him to loue 
Mor^ pan ani pe erth oboue ; 

For grete luf and for gude drewri, 117 5 

I let pe Erl so lig me by. 
J>usgat was pis ilk child getin ; 
Bot I prai pe pat no man weten.' 

"*Nai, dame,' he said, 'bot wiltou her.?.? 
For pe child was geten on pis maner^, 1180 

To medcin bus him drink aiid ete 
Contr«;riouse drink, co«trarius mete ; 
Him bihoues on pis wise do: 
Ete beres fless and drink pe bro.' 
J>ai toke a ber^ par^ in pe town, 1185 

And sethed it in a kalderowne. 
pai gaf pe childe par^of to ete. 
Ilk day omang his oper mete. 

1159 R may, child no. — 1160 R tell, cropp. — 1162 R tell, to no. — 1163^'? 
counsail. — 1 1 64 R mond, schent full. — 1 1 65 ^ bi >e ded, sail. — 1 1 66 7? sail. — 
ii6-j R scho. — 1 1 68 AIS. tweft, R yhere. — 1169 ./? Erell, hyd^r, ryde. — iijo R 
many knyghtes, mykell pryde. — 1172 j? many. — 1174 -^ any. — 117 5 R gret, gud 
drewry. — 11 76 R lete, Erell, lyg. — 1177 /'husgate, geten. — 1178 j^ pray, wyten. 
— 1179 R Nay, sayd, will bou. — 1181 R medcyn, drynk. — 1182 R Contrarius 
drynk. — 1184 R Ette, flessch, drynk. — 1185 R toune. — 1186 R kalderoune. — 
1187^ child. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 41 

pe bro he drank also with wyne, 

And sone amended bi ]'is medcine. 1190 

When he was warist ia.ire and wele, 

]?e king gaf him mani fairi? iuel 

Vnto J'e leche, a7id siluer mid golde 

Als mekil als he tak wolde, 

" Hame ogayn he went ful sone 1195 

And tald his mayste'r how he had done, 
Ypocras asked if al war wele ; 
*§a, sir,' he said, 'als haue I sele.' 
He asked what was ])e childes medcine ; 
* Beres fless,' he said, '■and ]>e bro with wine.' 1200 
']7an was he horkop,' said Ypocras. 
' Sir,' said )'e child, ' I trow he was.' 
'O son,' he said, 'bi Goddes dome, 
J?ou ert waxen a wel wise grome ! ' 
J7an Ipocras thinkes how he myght [32 a] 1205 
Sla his neuow ogains )'e right. 

" Son l^arerfter on a day 
To feldes pai went pam for to play ; 
Vntil a gardine gan J)ai gane 

Whar^ nobil herbes war many ane. 1210 

Ypocras said to his neuow : 
' Her^ er herbes of grete verfu.' 
J'e child gaf ane to Ypocras, 
And he said fele better \zx was ; 
And so he said bot to asay 12 15 

How he might ]'e childe bitray. 
AnoJ'er herb j^e child has found, 
And doun he stowpes vnto J^e grownd, 

1190 i? medcyne. — 1191 R waryst fair. — 1192 /* kyng, many fair iuele. — 1193 j? 
both instead of first and, syluer, gold. — 1 194 R mykell, wold. — 1 195 i? ogayne, full. 

— 1 196 R maist^;-. — 1197 R Ypocrase, all. — 1198 R Yha. — 1199 R medcyne. — 
1200 R flessch, wyne. — 1201 R horcopp, ypocrase. — 1202 R wase. — 1203 R 
godes. — 1204 R well. — 1205 R Ypocrase thynkes. — 1206 R ogayns, ryght. — 
1207 R Sone. — 1209 R vntyll, gardyne. — 1210 ^ noble erbes. — \2\\ R Ypo- 
crase. — 121 2 .^ gret vertow. — 1213 j? ypocrase. — \2\\ R om. he, R J^are wase. 

— 121 5 R assay. — 1216 ^ myght, child. — 1217 R Ane other herbe, founde. — 
121S 7? doune, grounde. 



42 THE SEVEN SAGES 

J>at nobil herb vp for to tane. 

Ypocras him strake \n ))e rig-bane; 1220 

J?e childe fel down and might noght sta«d. 

}7us his erne slogh him with his hand. 

He beried him right sone in hy, 

And said J^at he died sodanly. 

" Bot God, )>at es of heuyn king, 1225 

pat ou^rsese erth and alkins thing, 
Tok vengance on })is tresown, 
And sent Ypocras pe menisowne. 
J>an wist wele Maist.?/- Ypocras 

J>at he sold dy for pis trispase ; 1230 

For al medcines ))at he kowth teche, 
His menyson he might noght leche, 
Hiwseluy;? might he mend no dele. 
And, for he wald men wist J)is wele, 
A tome wineton forth gert he set, 1235 

And f ul of wat^r he did it jet ; 
And hastili he sent J^at tide 
Eft^r his neghburs on ilka side. 
He tald bifor^ fam euerilkane 

How he had his neuow slane; 1240 

^And sertes for I wroght fat ill, 
Es })is vengance cuwen me till.' 
In ]>e tun he bored holes ful fele, 
And stopped ilkane with a dosele. 

"J>an he enoynt fe holes obout, 1245 

And sepen he drogh ]>e dosels out ; 
And wat^r of ])e ton come nane, 
Heri?of meruayled mani ane. 



1219 R noble erbe. — 1220 R Ypocrase, ryg bane. — 1221 R child fell doune, 
myght. — 1223 R biryed, ryght. — 1224 R dyed sodainly. — 1225 R heuen kyng. — 
1226 R alkyns thyng. — 1227 R Toke, tresoune. — 1228 R ypocrase, menysoune. — 
1229 R ypocrase. — 1230 R suld. — 1231 ./? all medcyns, couth. — 1232 R meny- 
sone, myght. ^ — 1233 R Him seluen myght. — 1235 R wyne ton furth, sett. — 
1236 R full, dyd, yhett. — 1237 R hastily, tyde. — 1238 R syde. — 1239 R bi for, a 
dele deleted before ane. — 1242 R comen, tyll. — 1243 ^ ^^^^- — '246 R sythen. — 
1247 R om. And. — 1248 R \>zx of m^ruaild many. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 43 

' Lo,' he said, ' I can ger stem 

J)e water wele, withowten wem ; 1250 

Bot I can noght, bi no resown, 

Sese miself of pe menisown. [32 b] 

And vnto me es cuwen )>is wogh 

For my neuow ))at I slogh ; 

And I had none encheson why, 1255 

Bot for he was wiser J^an I. 

Now es nane mai salue my sar^ 

Bot if j'at he now Hfand war^.' 

" Sir," said J^e maist<?r, " J)us it wase 
Of \e wise man Ypocras ; 1260 

f>us ended he with sorow inogh, 
For \z.t he his neuow slogh, 
]7at vnto him had trispast noght. 
J>e same, sir, sal to fe be wroght 
If ])0U so smertly slas fi sone 1265 

And wate noght what he haues il done. 
}7arfor^, sir, do him alegance." 
)?e Emp<rrour^ als sone him grantes. 
J^e maist(?r takes his leue and gase. 
\>e firth tale ]ms ending mase. 1270 



Here Biglns f^e Fift Prices. 

J>e mayst^r hame ogayn es gane ; 
J>e Emp^rour^ wendes to chameb^r onane. 
Jpe Emp<?Hce byfor^ he fand ; 
Wepid fast aftd wrang hyr hawd. 
pe Emp,?rour(f said: "Dame, for ])e rode, 1275 

Mak meri and amend ]n mode, 

1249 R kan, steme. — 1250 R wiih outen weme. — 1251 R kan, be, resoune. — 
1252 R my self, menysoune. — 1253 R comen. — 1255 R enchesoune whi. — 1257 
R may. — 1258 R lyfand. — 1260 y? ypocrase. — 1 261 ^I noghe. — 1262 i? sloghe. 
— 1264 A" sail. — 1265 vP sla. — \266R ill. — 1267 R Jjarfor, aleggance. — 126&R 
Emp^rour al sone, grauntes. — 1270 R ferth, endyng. — Heading R bigyns, fyft 

process, MS. v. — 1271 R ogayne. — 1272 R Emperour, chaumber o — 

1273 R bi fore. — 1274 R Wepand, hir. — 1276 R mery. 



44 THE SEVEN SAGES 

And tel me wha haues done ]'e wrang; 

I sal )>e venge or euer I gang." 

Sho said : " Sir, meruayl es it nana ; 

I se J'ine honori? es ner^- gane ; 1280 

J>e wede I se wax ouer pe corn ; 

Alias, pat I in werld was born ! 

Alias, |)at I ))at dai sold sene 

]?at we sold dep^-rted bene ! " 

"Dame," said ]'e Emp^rour*?, "how swa ? 1285 

Sal we part now son in twa ? " 
" §a, sertes," sho said, "pat sal ])0u se ; 
For j'ou wil noght wirk ^iter me. 
Hastily pou bese vndone 

By him pat pou cals ])i son. 1290 

For his sake bath knight and swayn 
Sal al be turned pe ogayn ; 
And hastly sal pai put pe downe 
Out of pi realme and ]n renowne. 
And set pi son vp in pi stede ; 1295 

A?id sertes me war leuer to be ded. 
And if pou lat it sogat be, [32 c] 
I prai to God it fal of pe 
Als it was sene for sertayne 

Of him pat with his son was slayn : 1300 

J>e son pe fader heuid of smate." 
" Dame," he said, " what was he pat ? " 
" Sir," sho said, " if I pe tell, 
J»ou settes nothing bi my spell ; 

And sertanly pat sal pe rew." 1305 

"Dame," he said, "by der^ Ihesu, 
I sal tomorn wirk al pi will ; 

1277 R tell. — 1278 i? sail. — 1279-80 R otn. — 1281 ^ waxes, corne. — 1282 R 
world, borne. — 1 283 R day suld. — 1 284 R suld. — 1 285 /? Empd'rour. — 1 286 R 
Sail, sone. — 1287 R Yha, scho, sail yhe. — 1288 R yhe will. — 1290 R Bi, calles, 
sone. — 1 291 R knyght, swayne. — 1292 R Sail all, ogayne. — 1293 R hastily sail, 
putt, doune. — 1294 R renoune. — 1295 R sett. — 1296 R dede. — 1297 R sogate. 
— 1298 R pray, fall. — 1300 R slayne. — 1301 R heued. — 1302 R bate. — 1303 R 
scho. — 1304 R be. — 1305 R sertainly, sail. — 1306 A' be. — 1307 R sail, all. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 45 

And \arioxe tel )>is tale me till, 

Fully al how it byfell." 

J>e Emp^Hse hir tale gan tell. 1310 



[^GaL""] V^ Fift Tale Sayd pe Wyfe. 

Sho said : " Sir, sen ))is town bigan, 
Her^ was wonand a nobil man. 
Of him was word in ilk cuntre, 
For no man was so riche als he ; 
Emp(?rour^ he was of nobil fame, 131 5 

And Octouian was his name. 
He gert mak a ful nobil tour,?, 
Afid ])arin did he his tresour^. 
In Rome pan was wise klerkes twa. 
A liberal man was ane of ]'a; 1320 

J>e toper was hard and fast haldand, — 
Nothing wald he gif with his hand. 
]7arfor^ ])e Empi?rowr^ him toke 
To kepe his tresor<?, als tels pe boke. 
' He keped it wele by night and day, 1325 

For wele he hoped it sold last ay. 

"J>e large clerk wist al ful right. 
And efterward, opon a night, 
Vntil ane of his sons said he : 

' Rise vp, felow, and wend with me.' 1330 

J>e child said : * Sir, at %owxe will.' 
Forth went pai p/ruely a?id still. 
pai toke with pam bath hak and spade ; 
Vnder pe erth a hole pai made 

1308 R tell, tyll. — 1309 R all, bi fell. — 1310 R Emp^rice. — Heading R fyft, 
said. — 1311 R Scho, toune. — 1312 R noble. — 1313 R contra.— 1314 R ryche. 

— 1 31 5 R Emp^rour, noble. — 13 16 7? Octouyane. — 1317 j? full noble. -^ 1318 i? 
t-are in dyd. — 1319 R wyse clerkes. — 1320 R lyberall. — 1322 R wold, gyf, MS. 
his above line. — 1323 R l^arfor, emp^rour. — 1324 R telles, buke. — 1325 R bi 
nyght. — 1326 ^suld. — 1327 R all full ryght. — 1328 R nyght. — 1329 R vn tyll. 

— 1330 R Ryse. — 1331 R y\\our. — 1332 R styll. — 1333 R both. — 1334 .ff vndor. 



46 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Right into ))at nobil towr^. 1335 

J>e fader went in to feche tresour^ ; 

He findes a bag ful of mone ; 

In bath his handes pat hentes he, 

And til \e. hole sone he it gat. 

His son keped it right j'arat. 1340 

]7an ])e fader come forth ogayne, 

A7id dited )>e hole euyn a?id playn. [32 d] 

Hame with pe tresor<f hied pai fast, 

And made meri wils it last. 

" Sone eft^r ))e kaytef senatour^ 1345 

Gase to loke his lord tresour^. 
pe hole he findes stoped with a stane ; 
J>e mekil bag oway was tane. 
His wa he wald tel to na man; 

Bot in his hert he thinkes pan 1350 

J?at he pat pe hole so left 
Ogain peder wald cum eft ; 
And pan he thoght pam for to swike. 
'\>z.re gert he mak a ful depe dike, 
Vnder pe wall, pat was so thik ; 1355 

And filled it ful of ter and pik, 
J)at if pe thef come peder ogain. 
In pe dike he sold be slayne. 
And efter pat ilk day arly 

Went he to pe tresory, 1360 

To loke if pat his gest war cuwen 
J>at pe tresor<? pepin had nomen. 

" Al had pai spended sone sertayn ; 
J>e fader and pe son wendes ogayn. 



1335 R Ryght, noble toure. — 1336 R fech. — 1337 R fyndes, full. — 1339 R 
till, gatt. — 1340 R hare att. — 1341 R furth. — 1342 R dytted, euen, playne. — 
1343 R hyed. — 1344 R mery whils. — 1345 R kaytyf. — 1346 R luke. — 1347 R 
fyndes stopped. — 1348 R mykell. — 1349 R tell, no. — 1352 R Ogayn Hder, com. 
■ — 1353 R swyke. — 1354 R make, full, dyke. — 1355 R thyk. — 1356 R fyld, full, 
terr, pyk. — 1357 R thefe com )nder o gayne. — 1358 R dyke, suld, slane. — 
1359 R arely. — 1361 R luke, comen. — 1362 R ^ethen. — 1363 R All, sertayne. 
— 1364 R ogayne. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 47 

Bitwene pam toke pai out J>e stane ; 1365 

J?e fader crepis in sone onane, 

And doun he fals in ter and pik, — 

Wit je wele, pat was ful wik. 

Loud he cried and said "Alias!" 

His son askes him how it was. 1370 

He said : ' I stand vp til ]>e chin 

In pik, j)at I mu« neuer out win.' 

' Alias,' said pe son, ' what sal I do ? ' 

He said : ' Tak my swerd ]»e vnto, 

And smite my heuid fra my body.' 1375 

J?e son said : ' Nai, sir, sekerly ; 

Arif I sold myseluen sla.' 

' Son,' he said, ' it most be swa, 

Or els )>ou a7id al )n kyn 

Mu« be shent, bath mar^ and myn ; 1380 

A7id if mi heuid be smeten oway, 

Na word sal men of me say. 

J>arfor^, son, for mi benisown, 

Smite of my heuid, and wend to town, 

And hide it in som preue pit, 1385 

So fat na man mai knaw it.' 

" His fader heuid of smate he \-3se, 
And forth with him oway it bare. 
Wele he thoght it for to hide, \j^2) ^] 
For shame ]'at efttr might bitide ; 1390 

For if men wist, it wald be wer, 
And lath him was to beri? it fer. 

" Als he went biside a gang, 
Into ]'e pit })e heuid he slang. 

1366 R crepes. — 1367 R doune, falles, terr, pyk. — 1368 R Witt yhe, full. — 
1369 R cryed. — 1370 R otn. son. — 1371 R to, chyn. — 1372 R pyk, mon, wyn. 

— 1373 i? sail. — I375^smyte, heuedfro. — 1376 i? nay, sikerly. — \t,T] Rs\i\A. — 
1379 R all. — 13S0 R Mon, schent both more, myne. — 1381 R my heued, smyten. 

— 1382 R sail. — 1383 R J^arfor, benysoune. — 1384 R Smyte, heued, toune. — 
1385 R hyde, pytt. — 1386 R no, may, itt. — 1387 R heued. — 13S8 R furth. — 
13S9 R hyde. — 1390 R schame, myght be tyde. — 1391 R war. — 1393 R bi syde. 

— 1394 R pytt, heued. 



48 THE SEVEN SAGES 

J>an went he hame wightli and sone, 1395 

And tald his moder how he had done. 

J>e whif weped, so was her wa ; 

So did his brewer and sisters alswa. 

On j'e morn pe senatoure 

Went arly vnto )»e tour^; 1400 

In ])e pit he findes a hedles man, 

Bot knaw him for nothin[g] he can. 

He kowth noght ken ])an his felaw 

J>at he wont ful wele to knaw. 

He gert haue of J'e pik bidene, 1405 

And wass pe body fair^ and clene. 

He loked byfor^ ])an and bihind ; 

Knawlageing kowth he none find. 

" J>an gert he bring twa stalworth hors, 
And bad j'am draw ])e hedeles cors ; 1410 

And whoso }'ai saw sorow make, 
He bad biUue ])ai sold ])am take, 
And at J'ai war to preson led. 
For ])ai er al his awin kinred. 

)?at hedles body by ]'e fete 1415 

Was drawen in Rome thorgh ilka strete, 
Vntil j'ai come bifor ))e dor^ 
Whar^ ]>e ded man wond bifor<? ; 
J>ar^ ]'ai murned and made il cher^, 
Whif a7id childer, al in fere. 1420 

p>e seriantes toke j'arto gude kepe, 
J>am for to tak ])at pai saw wepe. 
J>e childer pan war sare adred ; 
' Alias,' ]>ai said, ' now er we ded ! ' 

" ]7e son, ]»at wist of al pe car^, 1425 

Hirt himseluen wonder sar^'; 

1395 R wightly. — 1397 R wife, hir. — 1398 R syst^rs. — 1400 R arely. — 1401 
R pytt, fyndes. — 1402 MS. no thin, R kan. — 1403 R couth. — 1404 R he was wont 
full. — 1405 R pyk. — 1406 R wasch, fair. — 1407 R bi fore, bi hynd. — 1408 R 
knawlegyng couth, fynd. — 1409^? bryng. — 1410/? hedles. — 1412 R bi lyue, suld. 
— 1414 R all, awen kynred. — 1415 R bi. — 1416 R thurgh. — 1417 R vn tyll, 
be for. — 141 9 A' ill. — 1420 R Wife, all. — 1421 y? tuk, gud. — 1425 R all. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 



49 



He smate himseluen in J)e cheke ; 

J>air^ sorow sone so gan ])ai eke. 

J?ai tald to pam j^at wald pam take, 

JJat ])ai wepid for J^aire brojier sake. 1430 

pai shewed ])e wonde of ])air^ brop^r, 

And said pai wepid for nane oper. 

p>e seriantes saw pe wound sertain ; 

J>ai trowed pam wele and turned ogain. 

" Lo, sir," sho said, "herd' may pou see 1435 

How pi son wald do with pe. \_2,2, b] 
J>e childe was his wit bireuid, 
When he kest his fader heuid 
Intil a gang, so ful of fen, 

And wald noght in erth hide it pen, 1440 

Preueli, als he wele myght." 
"Dame," he said, "pou sais ful right; 
Vnkind vntil his fader he was." 
" Sir, on pe mot fal swilk case 

Bi pi son, — pe deuil him hang 1445 

Bot he kast pi heuid in a gang ! " 
" Dame," he said, " so mot I the. 
It sal noght so bifall of me ; 
For, sertes, I hete pe hardily 

J)at tomorn my son sal dy; 145° 

J>an sal he neuer swilk dedes do." 
Sho said : " Sir, God gif grace parto." 

Here Bigins ]7e Sext Prolong. 

At morn sone efter pe son, 
J>e Emp^rour^ rase, als he was won ; 
Into pe hal pan come he down ; i455 

1428 R hair. — 1430 R weped, l>air. — 1431 R schevved, wound, hare. — 1432 R 
sayd. — 1433 -'''' sertaine. — 1434 R ogayne. — 1435 R scho. — 1437 R child, witt 
bireued. — 1438 /'heued. — 1439 R Intyll, full. — 1440 j^hyde. — 1441 RVrexi&Xy. 
— 1442 R full ryght. — 1443 A' vnkynd vn tyll, wase. — 1444 R fall slyke. — 1445 
R deuell. — 1446 R heued. — 1448 R sail. — 1450 A sail. — 1451 R sail. — 1452 R 
Scho, gyf, hare to. — Heading R bigyns, MS. vi. — 1453 R after. — 1454 R 
Emp^rour rayse. — 1455 ^ ^^1^> doune. 



50 THE SEVEN SAGE^ 

f>ar was moni balde barown. 

Doun he settes him in his sete, 

And biddes his son fra pr<fson fet; 

And biliue J»ai sold be boun 

To graue him quik withowten town, 1460 

So pat he sold neuer her^ tell 

Mar^ of his son, how it bifell. 

Forth J)ai led j^e semly childe ; 

Ladies weped and maidens milde, 

So had pai sorow for to se 1465 

How he was led thurgh J^at cete. 

Right so come Maist^/" Lentiliown, 
Rideand fast vnto pe toun, 
\>zX. lered )'e child ar^ on ))e boke. 
For sorow he might noght on \\\m loke ; 1470 

Bot forth he rides fast to ]'e hall, 
Omang ])e knightes and swiers all, 
And on hi;;/ fast pus gan pai cri: 
" Maist^;-, kith now )n maistri, 

And help )n scoler in pis nede." 1475 

J?an to pe Emp^;'our^ he jede, 
A?id doun he knele[d] opon his kne. 
J>e Emp^rour^ wald noght on hi;;; se ; 
Til at pe last he said : " Traytour<?, 
God gif pe mekil misauentourd' ! " 1480 

"A, lord," he said, "whi so? alias! [33c] 
I am no traitur, saue jowr^ g;-^ce. 
§owr^ gentil wordes, lord, lat me her^." 
He said : " ]7ou sal aby ful der^ ; 
JJou and al pi cumpani 1485 

1456 R jiare, many bold baroune. — 1457 R Doune. — 1458 R bydes, fete. — 
1459 R bi lyue, suld, boune. — 1460 R quyk vii\.h outen toune. — 1461 R suld. — 
1462 R More. — 1463 R semely child. — 1464 R Ladyse, maydens mylde. — 1467 
R Ryght, Lentilioune. — 1468 R Rydeand, toune. — 1470 R myght, luke. — 1471 
R rydes. — 1472 R knyghtes, squyers. — 1473 ^ *^''y- — '474 R kyth, maistry. — 
1475 7? scolere. — 1476 R yhede. — 1477 j? doune, MS. knele. — 1478 R Emp^rour. 
— 1479 R Till. — 1480 R gyf, mykell mysauentoure. — 1481 R om. he said. — 
1482 R traytoure, yho;<r. — 1483 R Yho?<r gentell. — 1484 R sail, full. — 1485 R 
all, company. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 51 

Sal be drawen and hanged in hy. 

For I toke jow mi son to teche, 

And je haue gert him lose his speche, 

And also for to force my wife ; 

JJarfor^ sal he lose his life." 1490 

J>e maist^r said : " Sir, it war wrang 

Vs o]?er to draw or hang ; 

And if J)ou do )n son forfar^, 

JJou sal haue shame als mekil or mar^ 

Als he had f>at his wife gert take 1495 

With enimes for hir owin ded sake." 

J7e Emp^rour(? said : " What was he ? 

J>at tale, maist<?r, ))0u most tel me." 

" What helpis to tel, sir, in }ns stede, 

And J'i son fat tyme war dede .'' 1500 

Gif \\\m respit, I J?e pray, 

Whils J'at I my reson say." 

f>e Emp^rour^ hiw granted respite. 

And he was broght ogain ful tite. 

And fan Maisti?r Lentiliowne 1505 

Blithli bigan his resown. 



r Story VI.-| 
L Puteus. J 



f)e Sext Tale Sayd Maister Lentilion. 

** Sir, whilu;« was in fis cuntre 
A riche man of gold and fe. 
Hym wanted nothing bot a wife, 
For to solace with his life. 15 10 

Of neghburs childer none wald he, 
Bot toke a whife in strange cuntre ; 

i486 R Sail. — 1487 R yhow my. — 1488 R yhe. — 1489 R all so, wyfe. — 1490 
R l^are (^/'J'arefor mutilated, sail, lyfe. — 1491 R be mutilated. — 1492 R outher. — 
1494 R sail, schame, mykell. — 1496 R enmyse, awen dede. — 1497 R Emp^rour. 

— 1498 R tell. — 1499 R helpes, tell. — 1501 R Gyf, respyte, say after \>& deleted. 

— 1503 R Empi-rour, gr^zunted respyte. — 1504 R ogayne full tyte. — 1505 R Len- 
tilyoune. — 1506 R Blythely, x&soune. — Heading MS. vi., R said, Lentilioune. — 
1507 R Whilom, centre, jjis in margin. — 1 508 R ryche, fee. — 1 509 R Him, wyfe. 

— 1510 /? lyfe. — \^\\ R childre. — 1512 Z' wife, straunge centre. 



52 THE SEVEN SAGES 

A damisel he feched ferr; 

He might haue had wele better ner^. 

Fair^ sho was and lufsom als ; 1515 

Bot vnderneth jit was sho fals ; 

Sho had a leman pr^uely 

]?at lang bifor^ had liggen her by. 

When hir husband had broght hir home, 

Hir leman smertly eft^r come. 1520 

He toke a chamber ner^ j)at stede. 

Him thurt noght czxe Jmn for his brede ; 

J>e wife fand him inogh plente ; 

With ]>e husband gode ful meri made he. 

And when J^e wife might J'eder wyn, 1525 

To play })am let pai for no sin. \t^t^ d] 

" In ])at toun was ane vsage 
J>at halden was with maist^r a7id page : 
J>at whoso war tane in )>e toun 

Efter curfu bel vp or down, 1530 

Seriantes sold ])am tak ful sone 
And hastily in preson done ; 
And on J^e morn for ani thing 
Bifor<? domes-men j^ai sold hi;;; bring ; 
J>an thorgh ]'e toun men sal ]'am driue. 1535 

JJe gudeman p^rcayued of his wiue, 
How pat sho rase o nightes him fra 
Atid tald him noght wheder sho wold ga ; 
Bot til hir leman went sho sone, 
And come ogain when pe plai was done. 1540 

J^e gudeman had wonder of his wife, 
Ajid ful lath him was to strife ; 

15I3 y? damysell. — 1514 R myght, nerr. — 1515 -^ scho. — 1516 i? yhit, scho. 

— 1517 R Scho, lewman. — 1518 R lyggen hir. — 1520 R lewman. — 1521 R 
chumbre. — 1523 i? wyfe, I noghe. — 1524 i?gud full mery. — 1525 i*? myght Jjider. 

— 1526 MS. let obliterated except for part of\,R lett, syn. — 1527 R toune, MS. 

w . . . ne. — 1 529 MS. w e, R toune. — 1 530 i? After curfew, MS. be . . p, R 

bell, doune. — 1531 R suld, full. — 1533 R any. — 1534 R Bi for, suld, bryng. — 
1535 R thurgh, toune, sail, dryue. — 1536 R gud man, p^rsayued, wyue. — 1537 R 
scho rayse o nyghtes. — 1538 MS. whedes, R whider scho wald. • — 1539 R tyll, lew- 
man, scho. — 1 540 R ogayne, play. — 1 541 i'? gud man, wyfe. — 1 542 R full, stryfe. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 53 

Wele he thoght ]>a.v was sum gile, 
Bot jit he wold habide a while. 

" Opon a night j^arefter sone 1545 

To bed ]'ai went, als })ai war won. 
Vntil his whif he turned his bak, 
And still he lay and nothing spak. 
When sho hopid he war on slepe, 
pe whif out of ]'e bed gan crepe. 1550 

J>e gudeman wele p^rcayued in hi 
How pat sho went to hir lutby. 
When he wist how }'e gami« ferd, 
J>e dor^ ful stalworthly he sperd 
With lokkes and with barres grete, 1555 

And lete his whif stand in ])e strete. 
He sweres bi God, mekil of might, 
Sho sold noght come parin ]mt night. 
]?€ whif at pe dor^ ])e ring gan shak ; 
pe godeman at a window spak, 1560 

And said : ' Now mai pou noght sai nay, 
How ]'0u has done ]ns moni a day. 
Now haue I tane ]>e hand-haueing ; 
JJou may deny it for nothing. 

Vnto ]n iere ogain ])0u far^; 1565 

pi cu;«pani kepe I na mare.' 

" Sho said : ' Sir, merci for Ihesu ! 
For right sone sal pai ring curfu. 
If men me find, I mun be tane ; 
And leuer^ me war her<? to be slane.' 1570 

*Nai, dame,' he said, 'so mot I the. 
In ])i syn sal J)OU taken be ; 

1543 /? hare, som gyle. — 1544 /^ yhit, abyde. — 1545 J? nyght |)are etter. — 
T546 J? wone. — 1547 J? vn tyll, wife. — 1548 J? styll. — 1549 /? scho hoped, was. 
— 1550 /? wife. — 1 55 1 J? gud man, p^rsayued, hy. — 1552 /? scho. — 1553 /? 
gamen. — 1554 /? full. — 1556 J? wyfe. — 1557 /? mykell, myght. — 1558 I? Scho 
suld, com hare in, nyght. — 1 559 /? wife, ryng, schake. — 1 560 J? gud man, wyndow 
spake. — 1 561 J? may, say. — 1562 A' many. — 1563 J? hand haueyng. — 1565 /? 
ogayn. — 1 566 /? company I kepe no. — 1 567 I? Scho, m^rcy. — 1 568 J? ryght sone 
will, ryng. — ic^6g J?iynd, mon. — 1570.^ leuer. — 1571 -^ Nay. — 1572 i? sail. 



54 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Al ]>i kyn sal heren and sene [34 a] 
What myster woman Jjou has bene.' 

"Sho saw hir prayer helpid noght, 1575 

J»an of a wile sho hir bythoght. 
Sho waited hir a heui stane 
And said : ' Sertes or I her^ be tane, 
Sir, pe soth I sal ))e tell : 
' I sal me drown right in J)is well.' 1580 

* Dame, whej^er ])0u wil ]>e drown or hang, 
Me think ])0u has lifed al to lang.' 
J>an preuely sho toke pe stane 
And went vnto pe well onane. 

'Sir,' sho said, 'vengance I call; 1585 

For in )ns well now wil I fall.' 
Sho lete ])e stane fal in \)e well, 
And stirt vnder a stok ful still. 
J?e godeman herd noys of j^e stane ; 
And pan he was ful wil of wane: 1590 

He wend his whif had fallen down 
Into )'e well, hirself to drown. 
'Alias,' he said, 'mi whif es ded ! ' 
And forth he went ful wil of rede. 
He opind ]^e jates and went ])ar^out, 1595 

And law into ))e wel gan lowt. 

"And whils he morned in )'e gate, 
J>e whif wan sone in at pe jate. 
J?e dor<; sho sperres and barres fast 
With barres pat ful wele wald last. 1600 

J>e godeman heres pe dor^ sper hard, 
And fast he hies him pederward. 
'Whannow?' he sayd, 'wha es par^ now?' 

1 573 ^ All, sail. — 1 57 5 J*? Scho, helped. — 1576 J? wyle scho, bi thoght. — 1 577 
J? Scho way ted, heuy. — 1579 J? sail. — 1580 J? sail, drowne ryght. — 1581 7? will, 
droune. — 1 582 i? lyfed all. — 1 583 7? scho. — 1 585 i? scho. — 1 586 J? will. — 1 587 
y? Scho, fall.— 15S8 i? styrt, full stall.— 1589 J? gud man.— 1590 /? full will.— 
1591 .^ wyfe, doune. — 1592 J? droune. — 1593 ^ my wif, dede. - — 1594 ^ will. — 
1 595 /i opend, yhates. — 1 596 J? well, lout. — 1 597 /? murned. — - 1 598 i? wife, yhate. 
— 1599 i? scho. — 1600 /d full. — 1601 .^ gud man. — 1602 A" hyes, Mderward. — • 
1603 /^ said. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 55 

J>an went |)e whif to a window ; 

Sho said: 'What dose j'ou now ]>arout} 1605 

Es it now time to walk obout ? ' 

"*A, dame,' he sayd, 'for luf of ]>e, 
For fat ]>o\i sold noght perist be ! ' 
'Nay,' sho said, 'now am I her^; 
I haue no drede of pi danger^.' 1610 

' Lat me in, dame, I pray ]'e ! ' 
'Nay,' sho said, 'so mot I the!' 
'§is, dame,' he said, 'for heuy« kyng, 
For alsone wil men curfu ri«g.' 

*ga,' sho said, 'pat es wele done, 161 5 

J>e wakemen sal pe tak ful sone. 
And se pat pou has bene lichowr^ 
And cumes hame eiter curfour^. 
J>e war fayrer hald with ))i spouse 
J)an spend our^ gude at pe hor^-hows.' [34 b] 1620 

" J>an come pe wakemen par biside 
And herd pam twa togeder chide. 
Curfu bel was rungen pan, 
]?arfor^ tane was pe gudeman. 

J>ai had grete ferly it so ferd, 1625 

For euil of him neuerc? ar*? pai herd. 
J>arfor^ pai prayed pe woman par,? 
To lat him in and speke na mar,?. 
J>an said pe whife maliciows : 

'He comes now fra pe hortr-hows ; 1630 

J>us has he oft-sipes serued me, 
And ])arfore may we neuer the. 
Ful lang haue I hid his shame ; 
Now sal himselues ber^ pe blame.' 

1604 /? wyfe, wyndow. — 1605 ^ Scho. — 1606 /? tyme. — 1607 /? said. — 1608 
/? suld, peryst. — 1609 /? scho. — 1610 J? dred, daungere. — 1612 /? scho. — 1613 
i? Yhis, heuen.— 1614 /? will, ryng. — 1615 /? Yha scho.— 1616 H sail, full. — 
1617 Y?lychoure.— 1618 7? comes. — 1619 i? fairer. — 1620 i? our gud, here howse. 

— 1621 AfS. wake man, /? J>arebysyde. — 1622 /? to gyder chyde. — 1623 Ji Curfew 
bell, rongen.— 1624 /? barfor, gud man.— 1625 7? gret.— 1626 A" euell, neu^r. 

— 1628 J? spek no. — 1629 /? wife maliciouse. — 1630 /? howre howse. — 1631 /? 
oft sythes. — 1632 i?-^arfor.— 1633 /? ffull, hir schame. — 1634 j? sail him seluen, 



56 THE SEVEN SAGES 

"J>an vnto presown put he was. 1635 

Jje whife at hame had hir solas ; 
For sone hir leman come hir till, 
And J^ai had mete and drink at will. 
At morn sone was J^e gudeman fet 
Bifor |)e domes-men J^at war set ; 1640 

Thurgh ])e toun ])an was he led, 
Fowl desspoyled and al uncled. 
SeJ'in lathly haue pai led him hame. 
J>at whif was worthi for to blame 
J>at lete pam so hir husband lede 1645 

Anly for hir awin mysdede ; 
J>is woman kouth of gile sumdele." 
"§a, sertes," said pe Emp^rour<^, "ful wele ; 
Sho was wele wer ]>an ani hownd." 
J>e maist^r said : " Swik fele er found. 1650 

And, sir, be je noght euil payd, 
§owr^ awin es wer, war sho asaid. 
And if pat pou, thurgh hir euil rede, 
Gers pi son be done to ded, 

Swilk shame mot pou haue in pi Hue 1655 

Als had pis gudeman for his wiue." 

J'e Emp^rour^ sayd : " Sir, for pi tale, 
Jjis dai mi son sal haue no bale." 
J>e child was done into presoun. 
And pe maister went out of pe toun. 1660 

Vnto his felows he tald pe case. 
How his decipil helpid was. 

1635 ^ ^resone putt. — 1636 R wife, solace. — 1637 R lawman, tyll. — 1638 R 
drynk. — 1639 R Att, gud man fett. — 1640 R sett. — 1641 R toune. — 1642 R 
ffoule despoyled, all. — 1643 ^ Sithen lathely. — 1644 R wife. — 1646 R Anely, 
awen. — 1647 ^ couth, gyle soni dele. — 1648 R Yha, Emp^rour full. — 1649 ^ 
Scho, any hounde. — 1650 R swilk, founde. — i6^\ R yhe, euell payde. — 1652 
R Yhour awen, war war scho asayde. — 1653 R euell. — 1654 R Ger, dede. — 
1655 R schame, lyue. — 1656 R gud man, wyue. — 1657 R Emp^rour said. — 1658 
R day my, sail. — 1659 R prefsoune. — 1660 R toune. — 1661 R felaws, \>\s. — 
1662 R disciple helped wase. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 57 



Here Bigyns p»e Seuind Prolong. 

)7e knightes voided out of pe towr^; 
To chamber went pe Emp^rour^. 
He findes his whif ]>a.xe makand sorow ; [34 c] 1665 
Sho sais sho sal noght bide tomor[o]w. 
"Dame," he sayd, "whi sais pou so?" 
Sho said : "I ne mai none o\er do ; 
For leuer me war oway be gane 
f>an se J'i landes fra pe tane. 1670 

\>\. maisters to shame sal pe bring 
With argumentes a?id with lesing. 
Wele it semes for to be swa 
J>at many sal speke of vs twa 

Als did anes of a riche king 1675 

And a steward a?id a lady jing." 

" How bifel pat, dame, tel me, 
Als pou wil pat I luf pe." 
Sho said : " My telli;/g es noght worth, 
For my reson may noght forth. 1680 

If I sai neuer so sothfastly, 
I se pou settes nothing parby; 
And parfor^ wil I hald me still. 
What shame so pai will do pe till." 
He said: "Dame, tel me pi resown, 1685 

A?id sertanly I sal be boun 
To do ])i lyking al bidene." 
JJe Empmce said: "Sir, now be sene." 

Headiiig MS., R vii. — 1663 R knyghtes voyded, toure. — 1664 R chaumbre. 
— 1665 R fyndes, wyfe. — 1666 R Scho says scho sail, byde, MS. tomorw. — 1667 
R said, says. — 1 668 R Scho, may. — 1 670 R fro. — 1 67 1 R schame sail, bryng. — 
1672 R lesyng. — 1674 R sail. — 1675 ^ ""y^h kyng. — 1676 R yhing. — 1677 ^ 
bi fell, tell. — 1678 R will.— 1679 ^ Scho, tellyng. — 1681 R say.— 1682 R 
Jiare by. — 1683 R parfor will, styll. ^ — 1684 R schame, tyll. — 16S5 R tell, resoune, 
MS. reswon. — 1686 R sertainly, sail, boune. — 1687 R lykyng all be dene. 



58 THE SEVEN SAGES 

r Story VI I. "I 
LSenescalcus. J 

]>e Seuind Tale Sayd ]?e Wife. 

"Syr," sho said, "fis ender jer,? 
Was a king of grete powers; 1690 

Bath Poyle and Calaber land 
Was halely bowand to his hand. 
But in luf had he no delite ; 
He vsed no wemen brown ne quite ; 
Til at j'e last |'e riche king 1695 

On his members had bolnywg, 
JJat \iQ skin might noght ou^r it reche ; 
Afid sone he sent to seke a leche. 
And when he come, without letting 
Was he broght bifor ])e kyng. 1700 

He gert ])e king sone make vrine, 
To loke what might be his medcine ; 
J>at fe king might lif wele saw he \z.xe. 
A plaster he layd vnto |'e sar^; 
He made him medcines moni and ser^, 1705 

Vntil fe king was hale and i^xe. 
J>e leche said : * Sir, for ])i bote 
On al maner nedes j^ou mote 
Have wemen to play with o night ; 
)?an sal je sone be helid right.' [34 d] 1710 

J'e king said : ' Right so I sail ' ; 
And sone his steward gert he call. 

")7e steward said: 'Sir, what wil ^e?' 
*A leman,' he said, 'feche J'ou me, 
pat I mai jus night with hir play 1715 

And mak me mirth al pat I may.' 

Heading MS., R vii., R said, wyfe. — 16S9 R Sir scho, yhere. — 1690 R kyng, 
gret. — 1691 R Both. — 1692 R tyll. — 1693 ^ delyte. — 1694 R wewman 
browne, white. — 1695 ^ Till, rych kyng. — 1696 R membirs. — 1697 R skyn 
myght. — 1699./? v/itk outen lettyng. — 1701 R kyng, vryne. — 1702 R luke, 
myght, medcyne. — 1703 R kyng myght lyf. — 1704 R laid. — 1705 R medcyns 
many. — 1706 R vn tyll, kyng. — 1708 R manure. — 1709 R wewmen, o nyght. — 
1710 R sail yhe, heled ryght. — 1711 R kyng. — 1713 R will yhe. — 1714 R 
lewman. — 171 5 R may, nyght. — iyi6 R myrth all. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 59 

*Sir,' said |'e steward, 'bi Saint lohn, 

In pis cuntre knaw I none 

f>at wald be with jow in bed ; 

For jowrif word so wide es spred.' 1720 

J'e king said : ' Hete hir hardily 

Ten pownd of gold to lig me by.' 

'Sir,' said ]'e steward, * it sal be done.' 

Hame he hied him ]?an ful sone, 

And fol oft thinkes pe steward pan : 1725 

' I wald I war a fair^ woman. 

So pat I might win pis golde. 

And do parwith what I wolde.' 

J>e steward was so couaitus, 

He said: ']5e gold sal go with vs.' 1730 

"Vntil his wife he went onane 
And said : * ]?ou most an erand gane.' 
'Gladly,' sho said, 'sir; telles me wheder.' 
'J^e king es seke, pou most go peder 
For to play with him pis night ; 1735 

Ten pound of gold he has pe hight. 
J)is night pou do what he wil craue; 
]?at gold, dame, pan sal we haue.' 
*A, sir,' sho said, 'lattes be, f y ! f y ! 
He is noght lufsom to lig by, 1740 

And pat wate mani woman wele ; 
J>at war hard winyng of catele.' 
He said : ' J>ou sal lig pare pis night 
For pe gold pat he has hight ; 

For he that nothing win will, 1745 

Nedely moste he lose bi scill. 
And, dame, pis gold now sal pou win, 
Or I sal cache pe fro mine in.' 

1718 R contie. — 1719 R yhow. — 1720 R yho;/r worde, wyde. — 1721 R kyng. 

— 1722 R pound, lyg. — 1723 R sail. — 1724 R hyed, full. — 1725 R full. — 1726 
R fair. — 1727 R myght wyn, gold. — 1728 R pare with, wold. — 1729 R couetus. 

— 1730 R suld ga. — 1731 R Vn till. — 1732 ^ane. — 1733 R scho, whider. — 
1 734 R kyng, Jnder. — 1735 ^ "yght. — 1737 R nyght, will. — 1738 R sail. — 1739 
R scho. — 1740 R lyg. — 1741 R many wemen. — 1742 R wynyng. — 1743 R sail 
lyg, nyght. — 1746 R most, skyll. — 1747 R sail, wyn. — 1748 R sail, myne. 



6o THE SEVEN SAGES 

'* Sho said : ' Sen I mot nedes Jiartill, 
God wote at it es noght my will.' 1750 

J>e steward wald noght dwel ful lang ; 
He gert his whif forth with hi;// gang, 
And hastily he has hir led 
Right bifor^ ]>q. kinges bed. 

He did out torches al bidene, 1755 

For no man sold his whif sene ; 
And }jan he gert his owin whife [35 a] 
Go to l^e kinges bed with strif. 
]?an till his owin bed he went. 

f>e king j^e lady in armes hent ; 1760 

Of hir was he right wele paid, 
A?id at his will with hir he plaid. 

"f>e steward nothing slepe might; 
He sighed and sorowd al ])at night. 
Sone on ])e morn, whe« it was day, 1765 

To ])e kinges chamber he toke pe wai. 
J>e kyng lay ful wele and warm, 
Slepeand in pe ladies arm. 
J>e steward had ful mekil wa ; 

Vp and doun fast gan he ga, 1770 

Afid sighed euer with mekil sorow 
Vntil it was ner^ myd-morow. 
J>e king sleped ful wele ay ; 
J'e steward thoght ful lang pai lay. 
'Alias!' he said, 'I was to blame 1775 

To do myself so mekil schame. 
Better es to waken ))e king 
And pr^ueli my whif hame bring.' 



1749 R Scho, most, )jar tyll.^ — 1750 R \^ai. — 1751 R dwell. — 1752 R wife. — 
1754 ^ bifor, kynges. — I755 -''? all. — 1756 -A* suld, wife. — 1757 ^ awen wyfe. — 
1758 R kynges, stryfe. — 1759 R till, awen. — 1760 R kyng. — 1761 R ryght, payd. 
— 1762 R playd. — 1763 R myght. — 1764 R syghed, sorowed all, nyght. — 1766 
R kynges chaumbre, way, AIS. chanber. — 1767 R full, warme. — 1768 R Slepand, 
ladyes arme. — 1769 R full mykell. — 1770 R doune. — 1771 i^ syghed, mykell. — 
1772 R vn tyll. — 1773 R kyng, full. — 1774 /? full. — 1776 y? mykell. — ijy-j R 
kyng. — lyyS R pr^uely, wife, bryng. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 6l 

He opind ])e chamber dor bilyue 

Whar^ ]>e king lay with his wyue ; 1780 

' Wake, sir,' he said, ' it es forth dais ; 

Aud lattes )>e lady wend hir waies.' 

" ' Nai,' said pe king, ' by Saint Dinise, 
§it ne think I noght to rise ; 

First, in faith, I sal asay 17S5 

With ]ns lady anes to play.' 
*Nai, sir,' he sayd, 'for, sertanly, 
J>at es my whif pat Hgges j^e by.' 
*What!' said J^e king, 'es )ns \n whif?' 
J>e steward said: '§a, bi mi life!' 1790 

' Fy ! ' said ])e king, ' fitz de putayne ! 
Whi lete fou hir J)an be forlayne ? ' 
f>e steward said : * Sir, for ten pownd 
Of florins j'at er riche and rownd.' 
pQ king said: ' J?ou wate ful wele, 1795 

I bad ))e bring a damysele 
And noght to bring to me )n wiue ; 
Out of my land ))OU fie bilyue ! 
J>ou has bitraied ])i whif and me. 
And ])0\i bide til I resin be, 1800 

I sal ger draw )n traytur cors 
Thurgh j)is toun with wild hors ! 
Out of my land I fleme )'e, 
And ]n whif sal won with me. [35 b] 
If J)Ou habide mine vp-rising; 1805 

J?ou sal be hanged, by heuyn king ! ' 
J'usgat ])e steward lost his whife. 
And fled oway to saue his life ; 

1779 j^opend, chaumbre dore. — 17S0 J? kyng. — 1781 J? days. — 17S2 ^ ways. 

— 1783 J? Nay, kyng be, Dynyse. — 1784 J? Yhit, ryse. — 1785 /? ffirst, fayth, sail 
assay. — 1 787 J? Nay, said, sertainly. — 1788 J? wife, lygges yhow. — lySg /? kyng, 
wife. — 1790 J? yha, my lyfe. — 1791 A" kyng fytz. — 1793 /? pound. — 1794 J? 
florance, ryche, round. — 1 795 i*? kyng, full. — 1 796 J? bryng. — 1 797 /? bryng, wyue. 

— 1798 J^ be lyue. — 1799 /? bitrayd, wif. — iSoc /? byde tyll rysen, omitting I. — 
1801 R sail. — 1802 R toune, wyld. — 1804 R wife sail. — 1805 R habyde my 
vp ryseyng. — 1806 R sail, bi heuen kyng. — 1807 R ^usgate, wyfe. — 1808 R lyfe. 



62 THE SEVEN SAGES 

" Ipus out of ])e land j'C steward gase. 
J>e king, when ]>at him list, vp rase. 1810 

J^e lady, whils him liked, held he, 
And gaf hir giftes, bath gold and fe ; 
And sej'en he gaf hir with his hand 
Vntil a baron of his owin land. 
He wedded hir and was wele payd ; 1S15 

)?is ladi was noght euel bitrayd." 

J?e Empmce said : " Sir, right swa 
Mu« pou be ilemed )n landes fra, 
Or els done to doleful ded, 

Thorgh ]n wiked maisters rede. 1S20 

]7us sal ])OU lose ]n landes and me. 
Bot I mai dwell in )'is cuntre ; 
And titer ))e, Sir Emperowr^', 
Mai me wed snm vauaceowr^ ; 

For I mai lede ful esey life 1825 

If I be noght an emp^'rour^s whife. 
Sir, )ms sal ))i hap be hard 
Als it bitid to )?e steward." 

"Dame," he said, "so mot I ga. 
To me sal noght bitide swa ; 1830 

I sal noght trow ])e maist<?rs rede, 
Bot tomorn sal mi son be dede." 
"Sir," sho said, "so haue I sele, 
JJan wirkes ])Ou wisely and wele. 
Els sal he bring ])e vnto bale." 1835 

J7us endes J)e seuind tale. 

1810 R kyng, lyst. — 181 1 R lyked. — 1812 R gyftes both. — 1813 ^ sithen. — 
1814 R vn tyll, awen. — 1816 R lady, euell.— 1817 R ryght.— i8i8 R Mon.— 
1819 R dolefull. — 1820 R Thurgh, maisUrs wicked red. — 1821 R sail. — 1822 R 
may, centre. — 1823 R Emp^roure. — 1824 R May, som vauaceoure. — 1825 R 
may, full, lyfe. — 1826 R ane Emp^Hce wyfe. — 1827 R sail. — 1828 R bi tyd. — 
1830 R sail, be tyde. — 1831 R sail. — 1832 R sail my. — 1833 .? scho. — 1835 y? 
sail, bryng. — 1836 MS. vii., R seuend. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 63 



Here Bigins pe Aght Prolong. 

J>e morn come, als men mai her^ ; 
J>e Emp^r/owr^ rase with meri cher^; 
Vnto j)e hal he makes him jare ; 
Barons a?id knightes he findes j^ar^. 1840 

He bad his son bifori? jum bring ; 
Sone was it done at his biding. 
He bad pam wend out of pe toun 
And sla him sone in Jiat sesown. 
J?ai led him par^' he sold be slane. 1845 

So come )'ar^ of his maisters ane — 
Malquidas, forsoth, he hight; 
And when he of );e childe had sight, 
How he was led omang )ie rowt, [35 c] 
Aijier gan til oper lowt. 1S50 

J>e child )7ai led forth thorgh Rome, 
And pe mayst^r vnto cowrt come. 
Son on knese he haues hym set ; 
J>e Emp^rour<? ful fayr^ he gret. 

J?e Emp^rour^ said : " With right resown 1855 

J>ou sold be drawen thurgh j^e toun ; 
For je haue made my son to nyce. 
For to force myne Emp(?/ice. 
f'arfor^ fra bale sal nane him borow. 
And je al seuyn sal dy, with sorow ! " i860 

J>e maist(?r said J^an in j)at stede : 



Heading R bigyns, MS., R viii. — 1S37 R may. — 1838 R Emp^rour 
raise, mery. — 1839 R hall, yhare. — 1840 R knyghtes, fyndes. — 1841 R by for, 
bryng. — 1842 R it was, bydyng. — 1843 A' wende, toune. — 1844 R sesoune. 
— 1845 ^ suld. — 1847 R Malquidras, hyght. — 1848 R child, syght.— 1849 
R sett instead of led. — 1850 R Ayther, tyll other lout. — 1851 R furth 
thurgh. — 1852 R maist^r, court. — 1853 R Sone, knes, him sett. — 1854 R 
Emp^rour full faire, grett. — 1855 R Emp^rour, ryght resoune. — 1856 R suld, 
toune. — 1857 R yhe. — 1858 R enforce.— 1859 R >arfor, sail.— i860 R yhe 
all seuen sail. 



64 THE SEVEN SAGES 

"Sir, if ]50u dose ])i son to dede, 

Or thinkes his maist<?rs sal be slane 

For cownsail of a wik woman, 

So mot bifal pe in ])i life 1865 

Als did an aldman and his wife." 

J>e Emp^rowr^ said : " Maistifr, if )iou can, 

Tel me of J^at old man. 

If he was with his wife bitrayd." 

J>e maistd-r answerd sone and said : 1870 

" Eft^r ]>i son, sir, most ]'Ou send, 

And I sal tel J'e tale till end." 

J?e 'Emperowre biddes fai saue hi;;/ sale 

Vntil ]>e maist^r haue tald his tale. 

Efter ])e child })ai war ful snell ; 1875 

J>e mayst^r )?an his tale gan tell. 



■Story VIII. 
Tentamina. 



] 



J7e j^ght Tale Said Maist(?r Malquidas. 

He said : " Sir, it was whylum 
A riche man of grete wisdom ; 
He had wedded a nobil whife. 

In mekil ioy J^ai led j^air^ life ; 1880 

Til at ]'e last, sir, soth it es, 
J>is gode wife toke a grete sekenes. 
I can noght tel how lang sho lay ; 
At ]'e last sho died and went oway. 
J>e gudeman was in liking sted ; 1885 

Anojier whif ful sone he wed ; 
And sone sho died and hej'en jede. 

1862 /? do. — 1S63 /? sail. — 1864/' counsail, wicked womane. — 1865 j'?bifall, 
lyfe.— 1S66 J? dyd ane old, vvyfe. — 1867 i? Emp^rour, kan.— 1868 /? Tell, 
aid. — 1869 /? war. — 1870 7? sayd. — 1872 J? sail tell. — 1873 J? Empi?rour bydes. 

— 1874 V? vn tyll. — 1875 /d full. — 1876 y? maist^r. — Headmg MS., R viii., 
R Malquidras. — 1877 ^ whilom. — 1878 R ryche, gret. — 1879 ^ noble wife. — 
1880 R mikell, lyfe. — 188 1 R Till. — 1882 R gud, gret— 1 883 R kan, tell, scho. 

— 1884 R scho dyed. — 1885 >? gud man, lykyng. — 1886 R wife full. — 1887 R 
scho dyed, hethen yhede. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 65 

J>an lifed he lang in wedowhede ; 
Into eld so gan he pas 

J>at al his har^ nerehand white was, 1890 

His seriantes said : ' Sir, we rede jow, 
For jowr^ solace and for jowr^ prow, 
J'at je talc to jow a whife. 
For certes je lede an anely life. [35 d] 
Sho mai jow solace night arid day; 1895 

J>an mai je lif with gamy;/ and play. 
We rede je tak suw maiden jing ; 
pan sal je lif in grete likeing.' 
"A damisel he wedded J'en ; 
J>at es ]'e maner of aid men ; 1900 

§ong wemen wil ])ai spows. 
And ])an be prowd and ful gelows. 
Bot litel |)ai mai of preue note, 
Or els noght ; ))at dose ])am dote. 
So did J'is man, pe soth to say, 1905 

His whif of him had litil play ; 
Hir liked noght his oper spell. 
Herkens, now, how it bifell. 
Sone eft^rward, opon a day, 

Vntil j^e kirk sho toke pe way ; 1910 

Sho findes hir moder redy \-xxe, 
And talde hir sone of al hir car^. 
'Dame,' sho said, 'bi Goddes grace. 
Mi husband dose me no solace. 
JJarfor^ no better rede I can 1915 

Bot I most luf su?« o]ier man.' 
'Doghter,' sho said, 'I sal pe tell; 



1888 R lyfed, wydowhede. — 1890 R all. — 1891 R red yhow. — 1892 R yho?^r, 
yho?<r. — 1893 ^ y^^' yhow, wyfe. — 1894 R yhe, ane, lyfe. — 1895 ^ Scho may 
yhow, nyght. — 1896 R yhe lyf, gamen. -^ 1897 R red yhe, som mayden yhing. — 
1898 R sail yhe lyf, gret lykyng. — -1899 R damysell. — 1901 R yhong, will, 
spowse. - — 1902 R full gelowse. — 1903 R lytell, may. — 1905 R tyll. — 1906 R 
wife, lytell. — 1907 R lyked. — 1909 R afterward. — 1910 R vn tyll, kyrk scho. 
— 191 1 R Scho fyndes. — 191 2 R tald, all. — 191 3 R scho, godes. — 1915 R 
f>arfor, kan. — 191 6 R som. — 1917^^ scho, sail. 



66 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Aid men er oft ful fell ; 

J>ai kan think on mor^ quaintise 

J>an ani woman can deuise.' 1920 

" On Jus wise haues ]>e modern thoght 
To mend ])e doghti?r, if sho moght ; 
And if sho mai, on any wise, 
Ger )'e husband hir chastise : 

Sho said: ' Doght^r, pou be na fole, 1925 

Bot wirk hally eft^r mi scole.' 
* Moder,' sho said, ' I sal do 
Whatso j50u wil tel me to.' 
']^i husband has a fair^ gardine ; 
A fayre ymp groues ]>arin. 1930 

Ouer an herber ])e bowes hing ; 
J>i husband ]>3.Te has his play[i]ng. 
When ))i husband es fra hame, 
Luke )'Ou let for nakins blame, 

Bot bid biliue jowr^ gardiner<? 1935 

Hew doun ]'at ymp vnto fe fir^. 
If )'i lord sai it es euil done, 
Answer him on |)is wise sone : 
Say ])ou did it for ]>e nanes. 

To warm withal his aid banes.' 1940 

Sho said: 'So sal I do, my dame.' [36a] 
When pe gudeman was fra hame, 
Wheper ]>e gardeners wald or noght, 
pe ymp vnto ))e fir^ es broght. 

When ])e gudeman come hame ogayn, 1945 

For his fairi? ymp he was vnfayn. 
He asked wha had done pat ded. 
'Sir,' sho said, 'it was my rede.' 

1918 /? full. — 1919 y? quaintyse. — 1920 /? any, kan deuyse. — 1921 Ji moder. 

— 1922 /escho. — 1923 /?scho may. — 1924 j^chastyse. — 1925 /? Scho. — 1926 i? 
halely, my. — 1927 /^ scho, sail. — 1928 /? will tell. — 1929 ^ fair gardyne. — 1930 
J? hare ine. — 1931 J? ane, hyng. — 1932 A/S. playng. — 1934 /? lett, nanekyns. 

— 1935 ^ byd bilyue yhour. — 1936 i? doune, fyre. — 1937 J? say, euell. — 1940 Ji 
■wit/i all. — 1 94 1 i? Scho, sail. — 1942 j'?gudman. — 1943 y?gardyner. — 1944 i^fyre. 
— 1945 y?gud man, o gayne. — 1946 A" fair, vnfayne. — 1947 J?dede. — 1948^? scho. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 6/ 

Sho said : ' I did it for na harm, 

Bot jowr^ aid banes for to warm.' 1950 

J^e gudeman said: '}^at rewes me sar^.' 

Bot in ]'at time said he na mar^. 

To bed he went with litil gle, 

Bot til his whife nothing did he. 

On pe morn ]e whife in hy 1955 

Vnto ]'e kirk went hastily. 
Hir moder fand sho sone j'arin, 
'Dame,' sho sayd, 'je did grete syn 
To wed me til so aid a man, 

]?at of no luf ne mirthes can ; i960 

Anoper I sal luf, by Saint lame ! ' 
* Nay, doghtdv-,' said sho, ' ]'at war shame. 
If I'ou did so, ])OU war noght hende, 
pi kynred for to shame a«^/ shende. 
Yf pou did ani swilk foly, 1965 

Sone pi husband sold aspi, 
And tak on pe ful hard vengance ; 
J?arford', doght^r, for al chance, 
Do als I sal tel to pe ; 

J>an trow I it sal better be. 1970 

pi lord has, so haue I sele, 
A gre biche ))at he lufes wele. 
When pou sittes jie for to warm, 
pe byche wil lig hir in pi barm. 
f>ou make pe wrath, and with ]'i knife 1975 

Reue pe biche sone hir life. 
Yf pi husband be wrath forpi, 
Answer him wele hardily.' 

1949 /^ Scho, dyd, no harme. — 1950 /? yhour, wit/i after banes, warme. — 
1951 R gud man. — 1952 R tyme, no. — 1953 R lytell. — 1954 A' tyll, wife, dyd. 
— 1955 R morne, wife. — 1956 R kyrk. — 1957 R scho, l^are in. — 1958 R scho 
said yhe dyd gret. — 1959 R to for til. — i960 R na, myrthes kan. — 1961 R 
Ane other, sail, be. — 1962 R scho said, schame. — 1963 R dyd. — 1964 R schame, 
schende. — 1965 R If, dyd any. — 1966 R suld aspy. — 1967 R full, vengaunce. 
— 196S R harfor, all chaunce. — 1969 R sail tell. — 1970 R sall.^ — 1972 i? bych. — 
1973 R syttes, warme. — 19747? bych will lyg, barme. — 1975 R knyfe. — 1976 R 
bych, lyfe. — 1977 R\i,'\ of \A erased, wrathe. 



6S THE SEVEN SAGES 

JJe jong wife said it sold be swa. 

Sho toke her leue and hame gan ga. 1980 

Sone eftifrward, — sho wald noght let, — 

Or hir lord bi pe fir^ war set, 

Sho had opon a robe ful fine, 

Forord wele with riche ermyne. 

Down sho sat to warm hir swa ; 1985 

Hir skirt sho laid ful fer hir fra. 

pe gre biche thoght of na harm ; 

Sho laid hir on ])e ladies barm. [36 b] 

pe lady smertly drogh hir knif. 

Am/ sone sho reft )'e biche hir life. 1990 

And with ]'e blode ]'at sho par*? bled 

JJat ladyes clothes war al spred. 

" Ful wrath ])an was pe gudeman. 
When he saw his biche was slane. 
'Dame,' he said, *whi did ]'Ou so .^ ' 1995 

' Sir, for sho trispast me vnto ; 
And now sho haues )ms on me bled.' 
J>e gudeman rase afid went to bed. 
For his hund sar<? him forthoght ; 
f>arof ])e wife ful litil roght. 2000 

" Ano])er day to kirk sho went. 
And par^ sho findes hir moder gent. 
'Dame,' sho said, 'for al ])i lare, 
Mi lord lufes me neuer ]ie mar<? ; 
Luf som oper most I nede.' 2005 

f>e moder said : ' Nai, God forbede ; 
And if it sold nedely be swa, 
Tel me, doghter, wham ])0u wald ta.' 

1979 /? yhong, suld. — 1980 A" Scho, hir. — 1981 /? afterward scho, lett. — 19S2 
y? fyre, sett. — 19S3 /? Scho, full fyne. — 1984 y? ffurred, ryche. — 1985 i? Doune 
scho satt, warme. — 1986 /? skyrt scho layd full. — 1987 J? grebych, harme. — 
1988 /? Scho layd, ladyse barme. — 1989 /? knyfe. — 1990 /? scho, byche, lyfe. — 
1991 /? scho. — 1992 Jd lady, all ouer spred. — 1993 /? ffull, gud mane. — 1994 
J? byche. — 1995 H vi of whi erased, hi dyd. — 1996 R scho.^ — 1997 R scho. — 
1998 R gud man raise. — 2000 A" J^are of, full lytell. — 2001 R Ane other, kyrk 
scho. — 2002 R scho fyndes. — 2003 R scho, all. — 2006 R sayd nay. — 2007 R 
suld. — 2008 R Tell, whame. 



I 



THE SEVEN SAGES 69 

*A preste,' sho said, 'for sertan skill.' 

'Nay, doght<fr, I trow noght pat ))Ou will; 2010 

Better war a squier or a knight.' 

'Nay, moder,' sho said, ^]>at es no right; 

And I war tane in a knightes bed, 

Ful sone J^e word wald be wide spred. 

With ]>e preste I mai play preuely, 2015 

And na man wit bot he and I.' 

" Hir moder fast ])an gan hir blame. 
And said: ' Doghter, lat be, for shame; 
I sal ]'e teche anoper gyn, 

]7i lordes luf how ])Ou sal win. 2020 

Whenso |'i lord makes ani feste 
Of riche men and of honest, 
JJou sit bifort' Jie burd pat day. 
And on pi belt pou hing a kay ; 
And in pe klath fast pou it fest, 2025 

And stirt oway when pai ett best ; 
And loke pou draw doun mete and klathe : 
J>arof es bot lityl scathe.' 
'Moder,' sho sayd, 'pis sal be done.' 
Hame ogain sho hies hir sone. 2030 

Sone eft^r pat pe gudeman grayd 
A grete feste, als pe moder said. 
What helpes to mak lang tale ? 
pe wife serued of wine and ale. 

Sepin gert sho set hir a chayeri?, [36 c] 2035 

And set hir down with meri cher^ ; 
Onnence hir lord sho gan hir set, 
f>at pai might of a platere ett. 

2009 /? prest scho, sertaine skyll. — 2011 /? squyer, knyght. — 2012 J^ scho, 
noght ryght. — 2013 J? knyghtes. — 2014 J? ffull, wyde. — 2015 Jy prtrst, may. — 
2016 /? no, witt. — 2018 A' schame. — 2019 i*? sail, ane other. — 2020 /^ sail wyn. — 
2021 J? any. — 2022 Ji ryche, honeste. — 2023 A" sytt be for. — 2024 J? hyng. — 2025 
i? clath. — 2026 J? styrt, beste. — 2027 A" luk, doune, clath. — 2028 A" lytell skath. 

— 2029 J? scho said, sail. — 2030 A" ogayne scho. — 2031 A gud man. — 2032 A* 
gret fest. — 2034 A* wyne. — 2035 A' Sithen, scho sett. — 2036 /v' sett, doune, mery. 

— 2037 A" Onence, scho, sett. — 2038 A myght. 



70 THE SEVEN SAGES 

<'0n hir belt was hanged a kay, 
Als hir moder gan hir say. 2040 

Sho festend it fast in J)e clath, 
And stirt oway als sho war wrath ; 
Down sho drogh bath clath and kup ; 
Bot hastly war ))ai gaderd vp. 

Mikel mane J)e lord gan make, 2045 

Anly for his gestes sake ; 
Bot jit his wife he wald noght blame. 
When ]jai had etin, al went ]iai hame. 
f>areft^r, at J^e tyme of nyght, 

J>e gudeman went to bed ful right. 2050 

Noght wald he say jit to his wyue, 
For him was ful lath to striue. 
Bot on ]>e. morn, for his whif sake, 
A grete f\re sone gert he make ; 
And eiter a barbur^ sent he sone. 2055 

Afid when he had on )ns wise done, 
Vnto ]'e chamber went he still, 
And bad his wife sold cum him till. 

" When sho was cuwen, alsone he sayd. 
Of hir thre trispas to vpbrayd ; 2060 

*And, dame,' he said, 'by est and west. 
Men sais pe thrid time thrawes best. 
To chasty ]'e I wil bigyn, 
For euil blode es ]>e withyn ; 

And, dame, ]>at sal be laten out, 2065 

For ))0u ert ouer bald and ouer stout.' 
]>e gudeman gert tak of hir clathes ; 
Sho cried loud, and swar.? grete athes 
J>at sho wald noght be laten blode, 

2039 /? hynged. — 2041 /? Scho fested, clathe. — 2042 7? styrt, scho, wrathe. — 
2043 /? Doune scho, cup. — 2044 A' hastily. — 2045 J? Mikell. — 2046 /? Anely. 

— 2047 /? yhit. — 2048 A* eten all. — 2049 A^ pare efter. — 2050 A' gud man, full 
ryght. — 2051 A" yhit. — 2052 /? full, stryue. — 2053 /? wife. • — 2054 i? gret fyre. — 
2057 A" chaumbre, styll. — 2058 J? suld com, tyll. — 2059 A' scho, comen, said. — 
2060 i? tre, vp brayde. — 2061 A" bi. — 2062 /^ thred tyme. — 2063 J? will be gyn. 

— 2064 y? euell, wit/i in. — 2065 A' sail. — 2067 J? gud man. — 2068 A' Scho cryde, 
gret. — 2069 A* scho. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 7 1 

For it wald do hir na gode. 2070 

Bot wheperso sho wald or noght, 
Hir clathes war sone of hir broght. 

" When sho stode in hir smok allane, 
J>an sho gret and made hir mane. 
Sho said sho sold dy a7ui go wode, 2075 

For sho was neuer ar^ laten blode. 
J>e gudeman letted noght hir to greue ; 
Ower ])e elbow he rafe hir sleue ; 
J>ai set hir bi j^e fir^ to warm, 

And first pai toke out pe right arme. 20S0 

J>e barburt' smate euyn in pe vaine ; 
J>e blode brast out with mekil main. [36 dj 
Bi thre dishes war ful vp right, 
]?e whife lost bath colore atid might. 
And when pai saw sho lost colowr<f, 20S5 

J?e gudeman said to pe barbowr^ 
J^at he sold smertly stanche pe wiue, 
J>at sho sold noght lose hir Hue. 

"]?e barbur^ stanched pe blode ful sone. 
Vntil a bed pan was sho done. 2090 

]?e lord said : ' Thrise has pou bene wode ; 
Forpi pou bled thre disshes of blode. 
And if pou gang wode any mar^, 
I sal ger duble al pi care.' 

f'e whif wend to have died pan. 2095 

YAXer hir moder sho sent a man ; 
Hir moder come atid stode hir by. 
*A,' sho said, *my dame, mercy! 
Sertes, moder, I am ner^ dede ; 
I rise neuer quik out of pis stede.' 2100 

2070 R gude. — 2071 R whether scho, omitting so. — 2073 i? scho. — 2074 R 
scho grett. — 2075 ^ Scho, scho suld, ga. — 2076 R scho. — 2077 R gud man. — 
2078 R raue. — 2079 R sett, fyre, warme. — 2081 R euen, vayne. — 2082 R mykell 
mayne. — 2083 R Be, dysches, full, ryght. — 2084 R wife, both coloure, myght. 
— 2085 R scho, coloure. — 2086 R gud man, barboure. — 2087 i? suld, staunch, 
wyfe. — 2088 R scho suld, lyfe. — 2089 A' staunched. — 2090 R vn tyll, scho. — 
2091 R thryse. — 2092 R dyssches. — 2093 ^^ g^"- — -°94 -'''' sail, dubble. — 2095 
R wife, dyed. — 2096 R scho. — 2098 R scho. — 2100 R ryse, quyk. 



72 THE SEVEN SAGES 

'Doght^r,' sho said, 'what ailes ]'e ? ' 

* Moder, mi lord has slane me ; 
For I did thrise euil dede, 

Thre disshes of blode he gert me blede ; 

]>a.riore mi dede I wate es neste.' 2105 

' Doght^r, wiltou luf ])e preste ? ' 

* Nay, moder, bi God of might, 

I wil luf now])er p;rste ne knight.' 

* Doght^r, bifor^ I gan j^e tell 

J>at old men oft sipes er fell; 21 10 

parfori? hald ]>i husband till. 

And, doghter, ])Ou sal haue ]n will.' 

"Lo, sir," said Maisti?/- Malquidas, 
** Was noght ])is a ferly case ? 

Thrise trispast pe woman balde, 21 15 

And hir penance was thrinfalde. 
Els moght J'C ferth, so mot I the, 
Haue bene wer pan al pa thre. 
Sir, on pis wise fares pi whife ; 

Sho wil pe bring in sorow and strife. 2120 

Sho es obout bath dai and night 
At ger pi son to ded be dight. 
And if pi son, sir, so war shent, 
)7an war par^ none amendment. 

J>arfor(?, sir, tak a better thoght, 2125 

And at hir kownsail do po[u] noght. 
For al pe land wald pe despyse. 
To trow hir wordes and leue pe wise." 
J?e Emp^rrourd? said: "So haue I sele, [37 a] 
J>ou sais right wittily and wele. 2130 



2101 i? scho, ayles. — 2102 7? my. — 2103 7? thryse euell. — 2104 /? dyssches. — 
2105 7? par for my ded. — 2106 /i will )>ou. — 2107 I? be, myght. — 2108 J^ will, 
nouther prifst, knyght. — 21 10 /? aid, sythes, full inserted before fell. — 21 11 R 
\>2iX for, tyll. — 2 1 1 2 K sail, all inserted before H- — 2113 R Malquidras. — 2 1 1 5 R 
Thryse, bald. — 21 16 R thrynfald. — zw] R moi for moght. — 2 118 R war, all. — 
2119 A'fars, wyfe. — 2120 R Scho will, bryng, stryfe. — 21 21 R Scho, both day, 
nyght. — 2122 j'^dyght. — 2123 y?schent. — 2124 R amendement. — 2125 A' harfor. 
— 2 1 26 -/? counsail, J/^". Jjo. — 2127 R all. — 2129 A" Emp^rour. — 2130^ says ryght. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 73 

Jjis dai sal noght my son be slain, 

Bot put him to preson ogayn. 

Tomorn he sal be borowd or brent 

By rightwis dome and iuiement." 

}7e mayst<?r hame ogayn gan wend. 2135 

Aght tales er now broght til end. 

Here Bigins }'e Neghend Prolong. 

When day was went vnto ])e night, 
J>e Emp<?;-our^ went to chamber right. 
pe Empmce pan come him nere, 
Makand a ful sary cher^. 2140 

"Wha;/now?" said ]ie Emp<?rowrd', 
"Wha haues done ]'e dishonowr<?? " 
Sho said: " Wele aght me to be wrath, 
For je luf thinges ]'at me es lath. 
§e luf lurdans with losengeri, 2145 

And trowes j'air^ tales ]>dX er gilri. 
So did Cressent, ]'e riche man, 
]7at gold and siluer mekil wan. 
He trowed loseniowres techeing 

JJat broght him vnto euil ending." 2150 

)?e EmptTOwr^ said : " My lady fre, 
How Cressent endid tel J^ou me." 
Sho said: " Wharto sold I tel oght. 
Sen ))at mi telling helpes noght ? " 
He said: "Dame, I sal do ]'at thing 2155 

J>at may me saue fra euil ending; 
And parfor^, dame, tel me ]'is tale." 
<«Sir," sho said, "gladly I sale." 

2131 7? day sail, slayne. — 2132 A' o gayne.— 2133 jV sail. — 2134 /i Bi ryght 
wise, iugement. — 2135 R maist«', o gaine, wende. — 2136 R till ende. — Heading 
R bigyns, MS., R ix. — 2137 R nyght.— 2138 A' Emp^-our, chauber. — 2140 R 
full. — 2 1 41 R Emp^roure. — 2142 R dishonoure. — 2143 R Scho, wrathe. — 2144 
R yhe, thing, lathe.— 2145 R Yhe, losengery. — 2146 R t-air, gylry. — 2147 R 
ryche. — 2148 R syluer mykell. — 2149 R loseniowrs techyng. — 2150 R vn tyll 
euell endyng. — 2151 R Emp^rour.— 21 52 A' ended tell. — 2153 A' Scho, whare to 
suld, tell. — 2154 A' my tellyng. — 2155 R sail. — 2156 R fro euell endyng. — 2157 
A' tell. — 2 1 58 A' scho. ^ 



74 THE SEVEN SAGES 

rStory IX. "I 
|_ Virgilius. J 

f>e Neghend Tale Sayd pe Wyfe. 

"Syr," sho said, '■'■\zxe was whilome 
A clerk, hight Virgil, her^ in Rome. 2160 

Wele was he knawen omang clergi, 
And mekil he cowth of nigromancy. 
He made a fir^ by experiment 
In middes Rome, on ])e paueme;/t. 
It brined bath by day and night, 2165 

J>at no man it stanche might ; 
With wat^r ne with nonekins thing 
No man myght it out bring. 
J>e pouer folk of ]'e cuntre 

Drogh ful fast to fe cete 2170 

At warm j^am bath fote and hand. 
For ])e fir<? was ay brinand. [37 b] 
Opon a tour^ \-3xe of J^e toun 
Virgil made an ymage of latoun ; 
A bow ]'e ymage held in hand, 2175 

A7id in ]'e bow ane arow taisand. 

" In ])e vesage als, on brede. 
Was wreten )ms, ]'at men might rede : 
'Whoso smytes me, knight or swain, 
Sone I sal smyte him ogayn.' 2180 

So it bifell, opon a day, 
J>ar^ come a Lumbard him to play; 
He saw j^e image with bow bent. 
And to ])e lettres toke he tent. 
]7ai said: 'If ani man me smyte, 2185 

Heading MS.., R ix.; R said. — 2159 R Sir scho. -^2160 R Virgyll. — 2161 R 
clergy. — 2162 R mykell, couth, nygromancy. — 2163 R fyre be. — 2164^ inyddes, 
pament. — 2165 R birned both bi, nyght. — 2166 R staunche myght. — 2167 MS. 
none king, R nonekyn. — 2i6?> R bryng. — 2169 R pore, contre. — 2170 R full. — 
2172 R fyre, brynand. — 2173 R toune. — 2174 R Uirgyll, ane, latoune. — 2176 R 
taysand. — 2177 R visage. — 2178 R wryten, myght. — 2179 R knyght, swayne. — 
2180 R sail, ogayne. — 2183 R ymage. — 2184 R letters, entent. — 2185 R any. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 75 

I sal shote at him ful tite.' 

J>e Lumbard was iolif and stowt, 

A7id said vntil his men obowt : 

* Wil je )ns man asaid be ? ' 

And \2X said: * §a, ])at wald we se.' 2190 

He shot at pe ymage with a vir^, 

And sone it torned al into fat fir^ 

J>at was made in middes j?e way ; 

J>an slokkend it for euer and ay. 

Sir, jus was na wise kownsail. 2195 

Bot jit I'ar was a mor^ merua[i]l. 

" Virgil on ]ie est wal of ]ie town 
Made anoj'er image of latown, 
And in his hand a ful fair^ ball ; 
And als he set on pe west wall 2200 

Of fine laton anoper ymage, 
Like two brewer of vesage. 
Ful many men it saw, and sayd 
JJat with )5e ball ])e childer plaide; 
JJe tane it kest, \?X oper it hent ; 2205 

JJis was a quaintise, verrayment. 
In myddes Rome Virgil made a stage, 
And \^xe he set anoper ymage ; 
A merur^ had he in his hand, 

pat pai of Rome myght se ilk land 2210 

J?at seui;/ dales iornay obout pawz er<?, 
Who wald pam pese and who wald wer^. 
pus war pal warned ilka day 
When any fase wald pam affray. 



2186 i? sail schote, full tyte. — 2187 R both iolyf. — 2188 R vn tyll, obout. 
— 2189 R Will yhe, assayd. — 2190 R yha. — 2191 R schot, vyre. — 2192 R 
turned all, fyre. — 2193 R myddes. — 2195 R no, counsaile. — 2196 R yhit pare, 
nvruayle, MS. merual. — 2197 R Uirgyll, wall, toune. — 2198 R ane other ymage, 
latoune. — 2199 R full fair. — 2200 R sett.^ — 2201 R fyne latoune ane other. — 
2202 R Lyke, breth^;-, visage. — 2203 R ffull, said. — 2204 R playd. — 2205 R 
pe tother. — 2206 R quayntyse virrament. -^ 2207 R Virgyll. — 2208 R sett ane 
other. — 2209 i? merowre. — 221 1 A* seuen days. — 2212 A' W ha, wold. — 2214 y? 
faes wold. 



'je THE SEVEN SAGES 

"J>e king of Poyl had grete enuy 2215 

J>at ]'ai vsed swilk maystri. 
Ogaynes Rome, for nakins nede, 
Of batayl myght he neuer spede, 
J>at he ne was alway euil flayed, [37 c] 
Ouercuwen, or trattursly bytrayed. 2220 

"fJe king of Poyl has sent his sande 
Eft^r ))e best clerkes of his land. 
He talde ]>am al his grete greuance. 
And said ]?at he sold )>am avance. 
And gif ]:>am ful gudfe warisowne 2225 

J>at kowth bring pat ymage doun. 
Twa clerkes j^at iurne vndertoke. 
And said : * Lord, lely we sal luke.' 
Ayther of ]'am fild a forcers 

Ful of gold and siluer cler^, 2230 

And gert J^am lede in pr^uete 
Vnto Rome, ])at riche cete. 
f>ai groue j^at ane, so God it wate, 
In Rome right at fe west jate, 

Vnder the ymage jmt held J^e ball, 2235 

}7at thoght wele what sold iox\er fall. 

"J>at oper forcer ful of golde 
Delued pai vnder pe molde, 
At ]'e est gate, j'at same nyght. 
And eiter, when pe day was light, 2240 

]?ai shewed pam opinly in Rome, 
Afid to )'e Empi?/owr^ bath pai come. 
JJai said: 'God luke pe, sir Emp^/our^; 
It fals to pe to luf tresowr^r, 



2215 /? kyng, gret. — 2216 /? maistry. — 2217 A" Ogyns, nanekyns. — 2218 A' 
batail. — 2219 J? all way euell flayde. — 222.0 R Ouer cowmen, traytursly bi trayde. 

— 2221 R kyng. — 2222 Alande. — 2223 R tald, all, gret greuaunce. — 2224 R suld, 
auaunce. — 2225 R gyf, full gud warysoune. — 2226 R couth bryng, doune. — 
2227 R iourne. — 2228 R sail we. — 2229 A fyld. — 2230 i? ffuU, syluer. — 2232 
R ryche. — 2233 R }>e tone. — 2234 R ryght, yhate. — 2235 R bale. — 2236 R suld. 

— 2237 R he tother, full. — 2239 R yhate. — 2240 R lyght. — 2241 R schewed, 
openly. — 2242 R Emp^rour both. — 2244 R falles, tresoure. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 'J'J 

And we er cuwen fra fer cuntre 2245 

For tresor^ hid in ])is cete ; 

And if I'ou wil vs grant halfdele, 

We sal find it fair^ a7id wele.' 

}?e Emp(?/'Our^ said : ' ]?at grant I jow, 

For it mai turn to mekil p;-(?w. 2250 

Gifes me a part, takes jow ano])^r.' 

]7an answerd ]ie elder broker : 

' Sir, I rede we rest )'is night, 

And tomorn, bi dayes lyght, 

Sir, ))OU sal haue al ])i will.' 2255 

J?us ])at night habade pai still. 

" On ]7e morn pai toke ))e gate. 
With J^e Empcrowrif, to pe west 5ate. 
par^ |5ai delued in ])e molde. 

And fand a forcer ful of golde. 2260 

To \Q. Emp^TOwr^ fai it gafe, 
And said: 'Sir, lo, ])is vowche we safe.' 
JJan said pe Emp^rour^ )>ai war wise ; 
Held he none so mekil of prise. 
J>e Emp^rour^ went to his palays, 2265 

With mani barons a^id burgays. [37 d ] 
JJe jong(?r clerk said : ' Sir Emp^rowr^-, 
Tomorn sal we find fair^ tresowrt'.' 
On pe morn j'e \.o\er forceour^ ]>ai fand 
Whar^ ])ai had feled it with \z\xe hand. 2270 

pan was J^e Empi?rour6' wek paid. 
Afid bath \q. clerkes vnto hiw said : 
' Tomorn, sir, sal we tresor<f fynde, 



2245 R comen, centre. — 2246 R hyd. — 2247 R will, graunt. — 224S R sail 
fynd, fayre. — 2249 ^ graunt, yhow. — 2250 R may, mykell. — 2251 R Gyfes, 
yhow ane oth^r. — 2253 R red, ryst, nyght. — 2254 R days. — 2255 R sail, all. — 
2256 R nyght abade, styll. — 2257 MS. \>a.t /or J>ai. — 2258 R Emp^roure, yhate. — 
2259 i? mold. — 2260 /" full, gold. — 2261 R Emp^rour. — 2262 R vouche, saue. 
— 226^ AfS. hai /or J^an, R Emp^rour. — 2264 R mykell, pryse. — 2265 R Em- 
p^rour. — 2266 R many. — 2267 R yhonger, Emperoure. — 2268 R sail, fynd fair 
tresoure. — 2269 R forceour. — 2270 R >air. — 2271 R Emp^rour, payd. — 2272 
R both, sayd. — 2273 R sail. 



y8 THE SEVEN SAGES 

J7ar es none swilk ira hethin to Ynde.' 

p>ai went to bed and rase at morow, 2275 

pe Emp^rour^ to mekil sorow. 

" ]?ai said : * Forsoth, Sir Emp^'rowr^, 
Whar^ ]>e ymage standes wt't/i ])e merour[^], 
Vnder J^e stane, in ye molde, 

Es ful mekil seluir and golde. 2280 

In al Poyl and Romany 
Es noght so mekil tresori. 
If J)at we myght ])arvnder mine, 
We sold find gold ful gude and fine. 
J>e Emp^rouri? said : * By son and mone, 2285 

]7e ymage wald I na skath done.' 
pe clerkes said : ' Sir, in )5at stede 
Has Virgil hid al his gold rede. 
And ]>e ymage sal we noght let. 
So wele we sal it vnderset ; 2290 

And when we haue j^e tresori found, 
J>e towr^ sal we mak hale and sownd.' 
pe Emp^rour^ said : ' Wendes parto, 
Els je )5e ymage na harm do.' 

p2ii said: 'Sir, we er noght slike foles.' 2295 

pan take pai men and mani toles. 
f>ai vnderset )'e tour^ obout, 
And myned it, withouten dout. 
f'ai sunderd softly stane ira stane. 
And sone vndid j^e grundes ilkane. 2300 

" Al ])at dai ))ai mined with might, 
Vntil it neghed ner^ ]>e night ; 

2274 /? pare, fro hethen till. — 2275 /? rayse. — 2276 /? Emp^rour till 
mykell. — 2277 Ji Empisroure. — 2278 MS. merour, i/ie tail of the r having been 
obscured in the binding. — 2279 R stone. — 2280 R full mykell syluer. — 2281 R 
all poyle. — 22S2 R mykell tresory. — 2283 R J^are vnder myne. — 2284 R suld 
fynd, full gud, fyne. — 2285 R Emp^rour, bi. — 2286 R no. — 2288 R virgyll hyd all. 

— 2289 i"? sail, lett. — 2290 R sail, vndersett. — 2291 R founde. — 2292 R toure 
sail, sounde. — 2293 R Emp^rour. — 2294 R Yhe, no harme. — 2295 R slyke. — 
2296 R many. — 2297 R vnder sett. — 2298 R vnd^r instead of it. — 2299 R fro. 

— 2300 R vn dyd, groundes. — 2301 R All, day, myned, myght. — 2302 R vn till, 
nyght. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 79 

J>an l^ai said j'C Empirrour^ till : 

' Tomorn, sir, sal je haue jowr^ will.' 

pan |>ai sessed of ]?air^ werkes, 2305 

And to jiair^ ines went J^ir clerkes. 

When ilka man was at \-i\xe in, 

J>an thoght pai on anojier gyn. 

Vnto I'e stage stilly ]jai stale 

Afid toke J)am stra and stikkes smale ; 2310 

A fir^ J^ai dight, if it war derk, 

Euyn vnder al ])at werk. 

)7e ymage fel, ]ie tour(? alswa ; [38 a] 

J7at turned Rome to mekil wa. 

Wen pe clerkes saw al was down, 2315 

J>ai hied ))am tyte out of ))e toun. 

" On ]ie morn )ie Emp^rour.? gan wake ; 
J>an herd he men grete murni/zg make. 
He asked whi })ai made swilk cri ; 
J^e pople answerd him in hy : 2320 

* Our^ tour^ is down, our^ ymage brand ; 
And fat es al bi )nne assent.' 
f>an was ]'e Emp^rour^ szxe adred ; 
Ful fain he wald oway haue fled. 
Bot al I'e comu;/alte of Rome 2325 

Asented, by pairt' aller dome. 
Sen he j'arof was crop and rote. 
For to bind him hand and fote ; 
And gold and siluer pan pai melt. 
And in his mowth and nese it helt ; 2330 

In eres and eghen pai helt alswa, 
Ay whils a drop in wald ga. 

2303 R Emp^rour tyll. — 2304 R sail yhe, yhoz/r. — 2305 R sesed, J>air. — 2306 
R h-air. — 2307 R ilk, )>air. — 2308 MS. )>at, R ane oth,?r. — 2309 R stylly. — 
2310 ^ stykes. — 231 1 R fyre, dyght. — 2312 7? Euen, all. — 2313 7? fell. — 2314 
R till mykell. — 2315 A" when, all, doune. — 2316 i? hyed, toune. — 2317 R Emp^r- 
our. — 2318 R gret murnyng. — 2319 R cry. — 2321 R Our, doune our, brend 
mutilated for last four letters. — 2322 R all be. — 2323 R Emp^rour. — 2324.^ 
ffull fayn. — 2325 R all, comonalte. — 2326 R Assented bi }>air. — 2327 R J^areof. 
— 2328 R bynd. — 2329 R syluer. 



8o THE SEVEN SAGES 

pai said, for gold and o\er mone 

War j'ai made thral \a\. are war fre ; 

'J>ou sal be fild now, or we go, 2335 

Of gold pat })0u has couayt so.' 

"f>us died ])e Emptrourt' with shame; 
His awin self was al to blame. 
He died for nane o]>er thinges 

Bot for he trowed twa fals gadlingt'^-. 2340 

Swilk ending, sir, sal cum of pe." 
"A, dame," he said, "avoy! lat be!" 
Sho sayd : " J^ou trowes j'am ]mt ]>e glose, 
And sertanly j'at sal J)e lose. 

And ])0u wil male him ]nne a[y]r^ 2345 

J?at es obout ay ])e to payr^. 
Alias, ]'at he was euer born, 
J>at ]'0u sal for his luf be lorn ! " 
" Nay, dame," he said, " by son and mone, 
Tomorn he sal to ded be done." 2350 

Sho said : " I trow ])e neueradele. 
And sertis, sir, it sal noght seme wele, 
When ])ou ert ded with dishonowr^, 
A domb man to be Emp^rowr^. 

And, sir, sen ])at he es my fa, 2355 

pon spedes noght wele to spart' hwi swa." 
*' Dame," he said, " now hald ]'e still ; 
Tomorn ]'ou sal haue al ]'i will." 
J>an was ]'e Empi?;"ice ful blyth, 

And thanked hir lord oft sith. [38 b] 2360 

Vnto )'air<? bed ])an gan j^ai wende. 
JJusgat past ])at nyght til ende. 

2334 R thrall. — 2335 J? sail, fyld. — 2336 7? couait. — 2337 /? dyed, Empirrour, 
schame. — 2338 /? awen, all. — 2339 A" dyed, none, thynges. — 2340 /? gadlynges. 

— 2341 J? endend, sail com. — 2343 /? Scho said. — 2344 /? sertainly, sail. — 2345 
I? will, MS., R insert J>at before J^ine, MS. zre. — 2347 R borne. — 2348 R sail, 
lorne. — 2349 /? sayd be. — 2350 7? sail. — 2351 /? Scho. — 2352 7? sertes, sail. 

— 2353 /? dishonoure. — 2354 J? dom, Emp<froure. — 2357 J? styll. — 2358 R sail, 
all. — 2359 J? full blythe. — 2360 /? sythe. — 2361 /? I'air. — 2362 /? busgate, till. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 



Here Biglns ]?e Tend Prolong. 

On )je morn, when day was light, 
J^e Emp^rour^ was smertly dight ; 
And sone fe jates opend war^ ; 2365 

J^e knightes come with hertes sar^. 
J7e Emp(?rour^ come into hall ; 
His turmentour^ sone gert he call, 
And bad tak his son fra presown 
And sla hi;« sone withowten town ;■ 2370 

" Langer sal no man him saue ; 
No, sertes, he sal no merci haue." 
Knightes and ladies, mekil of prise. 
Banned ful fast ]>& Empmce 

For fat wa and for ])at pyne 2375 

)?at sho did childe Florentyne. 
To lede him forth war boyes ful boun ; 
So come ridand Maistt'r Catown, 
JJat mekil kouth of gude clergy. 
And he taght ])e childe curtaisi. 2380 

Afid when })e childe his maist^r saw, 
Vnto him he louted law. 

JJe maist^r had grete sorow in hert 
To se him suffer payn so smert. 
He praied ])e folk for to habide, 2385 

A?id to ])e toun fast gan he ride. 
He lighted doun bifor^? fe touri?. 

Heading R bigyns, MS., R -x..— 2363 R lyght. — 2364 R Emp^rour, dyght. 
After 2364 R inserts the couplet : 

His turmentoure sone gert he call 
And fech his son in to J^e hall. 

2365 R yhates. — 2366 R knyghtes, hert. — 2367 R inserts J>e before hall. — 2368 
R eft in place of sone. — 2369 R prd-soune. — 2370 R wit/i outen toune. — 2371 R 
sail. — 2372 R Ne., sail, mercy. — 2373 R Knyghtes, ladyse mykell. — 2374 R 
full. — 2376 R scho, child. — 2377 R furth, boune. — 2378 R rydeand, catoune. 
— 2379 R mykell couth ; R om. gude. — 2380 R child curtasy. — 2381 R child. — 
2382 R lowted. — 2383 R gret. — 2384 R payne. — 2385 R prayed, abyde. — 2386 
R toune, ryde. — 2387 R lyghted doune be for. 



82 THE SEVEN SAGES 

And hies him to )>e Emp^rrowr^. 

He hailsed him myldely with mouth, 

And al ]'e knightes, als he wele kowth. 2390 

f>e Emp^rour^ sat lang ful still, 

Afid se]nn with yxe he spak him till. 

And said : " Traitur, high mot ]'Ou hang. 

For ];ou has lered my son to lang. 

And teched him to be ouer nyce, 2395 

For to defoul myne Empmce." 

"Sir," he said, "so thriue I euer. 
To saue jowr^ grace, he thoght it neu^r. 
Aftd, sir, if ])ou ]'i son wil shende 
Withowten asent of barons hende, 2400 

To \e mot fal swilk velany 
Als fell ]'e burias of his py." 
pan said fe Emp^rowr^ whar he sat : 
"Tel me swith, what tale es ]>at ? " 
He sayd : " Sir, gif ]n son respite, [38 c] 2405 

And I sal tel it ])e ful tyte." 
J>e Emp(?rourt' granted ; }»e child was fet, 
And sone ogayn in p/rsown set. 
)?arfor^ wele payd was mani man. 
And Cato/m ]ms his tale bigan. 2410 



•Story X 

Avis. 



] 



]?e Tend Tale Sayd Mayster Cato«n. 

Cato/m said : " Sir, in this toun 
Was a burias of grete renown. 
Marchand he was of grete auer^, 
A7id had a fair^ whif glad of cher^; 

2388 I? hyes, Emp^roure. — 2389 R mowth. — 2390 H all, knyghtes, cowth. — 
2391 K Empifrour satt, full styll. — 2392 R sithen, Ire, tyll. — 2393 R traytur 
hegh. — 2396 R defoule. — 2397 R thryue. — 2398 R yhour. — 2399 R will 
schende. - — 2400 R Wit/i outen assent. — 2401 R fall, vilainy. — 2403 R Emp<frour, 
satt. — 2404 R Tell. — 2405 R said, gyf, respyte. — 2406 R sail tell, full. — 2407 R 
Emperonr graunted, f ett. — 2408 R o gayne, prd-son sett. — 2409 R ]?ar for, many. 

— 2410 R Caton. — Heading R said maist^r Catoune. — 241 1 R Caton, toune. 

— 2412 R gret renoune.' — 2413 R Merchad, gret. — 2414 R fair wif. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 83 

Bot sho was vnder hyr gare 2415 

Als wemen er now widewart'. 

]7e burias in his hal had a py 

JJat cowth tel tales ful propdvly 

And ful fair^, in Frankis langwage ; 

And it hanged in a fair^ kage. 2420 

Al ])at ]'e py herd, ilka word, 

Wald scho tel vnto ]-e lord. 

J?e py saw and wele vnderstode 

How fat ano] er come ajid jode 

Vnto ]'e lady, als him lyst. 2425 

J>e lord sho talde al ]'at sho wist, 

]?e burias trowed ful wele his py, 

For he hoped sho cowth noght ly ; 

And for pe tales pat pe py sayd 

J7e whif had many fowl vpbraid. 2430 

" So on a day fel on ]ns wise : 
)?e burias went with marchandise 
Intil ])e cuntre, for sertayn ; 
And pan pe wife was wonder fayn ; 
Hir hor^-maist^r pan sent sho for^. 2435 

And when he come to pe hal dore, 
Into pe hal dorst he noght hy 
For ferd of wreing of pe py. 
]?e lady toke him by pe hand. 

And said I sal pe wele warand. 2440 

J>e py was wele war of pis. 
And sayd : ' Dame, pou dose amys. 
Wist mi lord, he wold be wrath. 
And for pi folies do pe skath. 



2415 i*? scho, hir. — 2416 R vvyde whaie. — 2417 jV oni. hall in body of text, but 
inserts iti margin. — 2418 R couth tell, full. — 2419 A' full fair, frankys langage. — 
2420 j^ hynged, fair cage. — 2421 R All. — 2422 R tell. — 2424 i? ane other, yhode. 

— 2426 R scho tald all, scho wyst. — 2427 R full. — 2428 R scho couth. — 2429 R 
said. — 2430 R wyfe, foule upbrayd. — 2431 R fell. — 2432 R mrtrchandyse. — 
2433 R In tyll, contre, sertayne. — 2434 R fayne. — 2435 R scho. — 2436 R hall. 

— 2437 R hall durst. — 2438 A' wreyng. — 2430 R bi. — 2440 R sail. — 2442 R said. 

— 2443 ^ ™y' wrathe. — 2444 R folyse, skathe. 



84 THE SEVEN SAGES 

J^at man cuwes heder for na gode ; 2445 

My lord sal wit it, by ])e rode.' 

" pe wife thoght sho sold be shent, 
Bot vnto chamber forth ])ai went. 
pe whif thoght of a gillri, 

How )?at sho might bigile )'e py. [38 d] 2450 

When al was in bed, ^ong a/id aid, 
JJe hor^-maisti?/' and fe whif bald 
Set a ledder vnto ]>e hall, 
Euyn ouer J>e cage, without ]'e wall. 

" pa.re ])ai made a hole ful sone ; 2455 

And when ])ai had thusgat^i- done, 
]7ai toke a torche brinand ful light, 
And held ])arouer a bacyn bright. 
f>ai dang the bacyn with a wand ; 
"pe py for ferid was fast criand. 2460 

J>e gletmng of fe bacyn bright 
Wend )'e py war leuyny«g light. 
pe bacyn-beting made hir wonder ; 
Wele sho wend it had bene thonder. 
And on pe cache wat^r ful cler^? 2465 

Powred ]'ai out of a pitchers. 
pe py wend it had rayned J^arout, 
For wat^r fell so hir obout. 
With water so and torches light 
Held )'ai j^e py wakeand ])at night. 2470 

" On ]'e morn, when it was day, 
pe hor^-maist(?r went his way. 
pe hole was opin on ])e morow, — 
JJat made ]>am eft^r mekil sorow, — 

2445 /? comes hyder, no gude. — 2446 /? sail, be. — 2447 Ji scho suld, schent. — 
2448 y? chaumbre f urth. — 2449 /i wife, gylry. — 2450 /? scho myght begyle. — 
2451 /^ all, yhong. — 24'52 J? wife. — 2453 J? Sett. — 2454 /? Euen. — 2455 /^ full. 
— 2456 I? thusgate. — 2457 /i brynand full lyght. — 2458 J? J>are ouer, bryght. — 
2460 J? ferd, cryand. — 2461 f^ glyteryng, bryght. — 2462 J? leuenyng lyght. — 2463 
J? betyng. — 2464 J? scho, thoner. — 2465 /? kage, full. — 2466 J? pycchere. — 2467 
I? hare out. — 2469 J^ lyght. — 2470 JH wakand, nyght. — 2473 ^ open. — 2474 
v? mykell. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 85 

And ]'e ladder als lay still; 2475 

Bot men toke litel tent partill. 

J^e day was cuwen and night was gane ; 

JJe py hir shoke and made hir mane, 

JJat sho had neuer so euyl rest 

Sen sho come out of hir nest. 2480 

At morn pe lord come hame ogayn ; 

}?an was pe py ferly fayn. 

And als sone als sho hym herd, 

Sho asked hym how ]'at he ferd. 

*Wele,' said ])e burias ; 'how feres |ou?' 2485 

'Sertes,' sho said, 'neuer wer pan now. 

Bot, sir,' sho said, 'bi Goddes myght, 

J>e lichowr^ has bene her^ al night, 

Vp in pe chamber with our^ dame, 

Ay whils pat je war fra hame. 2490 

And, sir, it has rayned al pis night 

A?id thonord fast with leueny//g bright. 

So wikked weder was pareout 

}?at had I neuer so mekil dout.' 

When pe py had pusgat sayd, 2495 

f>e gudeman held him nothing payd. 

Ful felly loked he on his wiue [39 a] 

And hastily bigan to stryue. 

'Sir,' said pe whif, 'pou dose outrage 

To trow so on a py in kage. 2500 

f>e weder was pis night ful fair<?. 

And nanekins noys was in pe ayr^ ; 

Bot of pe mone and sternes bright 

Sais pe py was leueny;/g lyght. 



2475 R styll. — 2476 R lytell, bar tyll. — 2477 R comen, pe in place of and, 
nyght. — 2478 R schoke. — 2479 ^ scho, euell. — 2480 R scho. — 248 1 R o gayne. 
— 2482 R fayne. — 2483 R al sone, scho him. — 2485 R fars. — 2486 R scho. — 
2487 R scho, be godes. — 2488 R lychoure, all nyght. — 2489 R chaumbre. — 
2490 R yhe. — 2491 R all; last three letters ^ nyght worn off. — 2492 R last 
four letters of bryght -worn off. — 2493 ^ wicked. — 2494 R mykell. — 2495 ^ 
pusgate. — 2496 R gud man. — 2497 R ffull, wyue. — 2499 R wife. — 2500 R sa. — 
2501 R nyght, fayre. — 2502 R nanekyns. — 2503 R bryght. — 2504 R Says. 



86 ■ THE SEVEN SAGES 

Also ]'e py to 50W me wries, 2505 

Now may je wit fat al es lyes. 

Bot I be venged on jie py 

p>at has me said swilk velany, 

I sal neuer be glad ne blith,' 

J>an ]>e burias gert alswith 2510 

Cal al his menje bifori? his sight, 

An{f asked what weder was pat night — 

If it was ow]'er thonor^ or rayn. 

J>ai said : ' Nay, sir, for sertayne, 

It was weder, wele we knaw, 2515 

Als fayr^ als any of scy might blaw.' 

" J^e burgas sais pan pat pe py 
Sold be lered na mar^ to ly. 
Na ma wordes parof he spak, 

Bot toke pe brid and brak pe bak. 2520 

pus hastily pe py was slane. 
Bot him forthoght it sone onane : 
Als he went obout murnand. 
To pe hal he saw a ledder stand ; 
Vnto pat ledder toke he tent, 2525 

He had grete meruayl what it ment. 
Vp on heght he gan him hi. 
And par<? he fand al pe gilry ; 
Al he fand pari? in ])at stede 

JJat gert his py be done to ded. 2530 

If he war wrath, na wonder was. 
Doun ogayn sone gan he pas. 
He toke a staf was gude and grete. 
And pe wife wele gan he bete. 
He fiemed hir ])an for hir foly, 2535 

2505 J? All so, yhow, wryes. — 2506 J? yhe witt, all. — 2509 J? sail, blyth. — 
2510 A" all swith. — 251 1 /? Call all, meneyhe be for, syght. — 2512 J? nyght. — 
2513 J? war outh^r thonur, rayne. — 2516 /? fair, o sky myght. — 2517 JH buriase. 

— 2518 i? Suld, no more. — 2519 .A* J>are of. — 2^20 R byrd. — 2523 7? mornand. 

— 2524 R hall. — 2526 R A«d had gret m^ruaile. - — 2527 R hy. — 252S R all, 
gylry. — 2529 i? All. — 2530 /? dede. — 2531 i? no. — 2532 j? Doune o gayne. — • 
2533 R A toke a stafe well gud. — 2535 R Ofily med remains of first two itfords^ 



THE SEVEN SAGES 8/ 

With wa, als sho was wele worth i ; 
Sho lered hir lord vnlefeful lawes, 
To sla his py for hir soth sawes, 

"}'is gudeman trowed ouer wele his wife, 
And als himself was ouer hastife." 2540 

Cato;m sayd : " Sir, bi my berde, 
Es none so wise man in midlerd 
J>at ne a woman cowth bygyle. 
And bring him into grete perile. [39 b] 
And, sir, if )'at j'ou trowes pi wife 2545 

And for hir reues ]n son his life, 
To ]'e moght fall slike velany 
Als did ]'e burias of his py." 
J>e Empifrour^ said : " So mot I go, 
Of me sal noght bifal so." 2550 

With j'is carping come ]'e night ; 
Fra court went bath clerk a?id knyght. 

Here Bigins ]?e Elleuynd Prolong. 

When al war past out of })at place, 
J>e Emp^rowr^ to chamber gase. 

)7e Empmce parin he fand, 2555 

Makand ful sari sembland. 
"Dame," he said, "what ayles fe now?" 
"Sir," sho said, " neuer rekkes }>ou. 
fJou wil noght venge me on my fa, 
And parfor^ wil I wend j'e fra 2560 

Vnto my kyn pat er me der^-. 
And neuermar^ to negh pe ner<f. 
For me es leuer to wend my way 

2536 R Only a remains of first two words; R scho. — 2537 R Sc 0/ Scho 
faded, unlefuU. — 2538 R The T ^ To illegible. — 2^y) R gud man. — 2540 R 
hastyfe. — 2541 R Caton said, be, herd. — 2542 R mydlerth. — 2543 R couth 
be gyle. — 2544 R bryng, gret peryle. — 2545 j? trow. — 2546 R reue, lyfe. — 2547 R 
mot, swilk vilany. — 2549 R Emp(?rour. — 2550 R sail, bi fall. — 2551 R carpyng, 
nyght. — 2552 R both. — Heading R bigyns, MS., R yi\. — 2553 R all. — 2554 R 
Empifrour, chaumber. — 2555 R bare in. — 2556 R full sary semebland. — 2558 R 
scho, yhow. — 2559 R will, of. — 2560 R parfor will. — 2562 MS. neght. 



- Story XI.T 
.Sapientes.J 



THE SEVEN SAGES 

pan dwell in dole bath night and day." 

He said : " Dame, if I haue mysdone, 2565 

Say me, and I sal mend it sone." 

Sho said : " It helpes noght for to neuy// ; 

For ])e sal shende )n Maist.?rs Seuyn, 

JJat ]>ou trowes atid tentes vntill. 

And spares him pat ]'e sal spill. 2570 

J>arfor^ to ]'e mot fal swilk thing 

Als bifel vnto Herod ]'e kyng, 

J>at tynt his sight for euil kownsail. 

Sir, ]ns tale may \q. mekil auayl." 

"Dame," he said, "]'an pray I pe, 2575 

J>is ilk tale now tel to me." 

"Sir," sho said, "with ful gude cher^; 

God len jow grace wele it to ler^." 

J>e Elleuynd Tale Sayd f'e Wyfe. 

" Syr, whilom was ane Emp^rouri? 
J>at led hys life with grete honours; 2580 

Herod was \q. Empifroures name, 
A mighty man of nobil fame. 
He had with hiw seuyn clerkes of pr/se, 
Als je haue, ]'at je hald so whise. 
Whatsoeuer come \v\m in thoght, 2585 

Eft^r ])air^ kounsail al he wroght. 

" J>a seuyn clerkes gan vprayse [39 c] 
A custume j^at was noght to prays : 
J?at whaso dremyd any nyght, 

Ajid come vnto ]'e clerkes ful right 2590 

Arid broght a besant til ofring, 

2564 R both nyght. — 2566 R sail. — 2567 R Scho, neuen. — 2568 R sail 
schende, seuen. — 2569 R vn tyll. — 2570 R sail spyll. — 2571 y? ^arfor, fall. — 
2572 R bi fell. — 2573 R syght, euell counsaile. — 2574 R mykell auaile. — 2576 R 
tell. — 2577 R scho, full gud. — 2578 R \>e. — Heading MS., R xL, R said. — 2579 
R Sir. — 2580 R his lyfe, gret. — 2581 R Emp^rours. — 2582 R myghty, noble. — 
2583 R seuen, pryse. — 2584 R yhe, yhe, wyse. — 2586 R After }>air counsail all. 
■ — 2587 J? seuen. — 2588 R custom, prayse. — 2589 iV who so dremed. — 2590^ 
full ryght. — 2591 R besand tyll offryng. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 89 

And tald pe clerkes of \2axe dremyng, 

'pQ clerkes parto sold tak entent 

And tel )'am what ]'air^ dremes ment. 

Sum was soth, and sum was lese. 2595 

Vntil pam come ful mekil prese, 

Bath of pe toun and of cuntre, 

For to wit what pair^ dremes might be ; 

Lordes pam soght fra diuers land, 

And ilkane broght pam a besand. 2600 

So lang pai lifed in pis errowr*?, 

]?ai war richer pan pe Emp^rowr^. 

"J>e Emp^/owr^ opon a day 
Thoght he wald wend him to play ; 
Out at pe jate als he gan ride, " 2605 

With hys men on ilka side, 
He bycome blynd als a stane ; 
And sent eft^r pe clerkes onane. 
He asked pam what made him blynd, 
Bot pai cowth nanekyn reson fynd. 2610 

J>ai asked respite four skor^ i^yght, 
For in pat space ]'ai hoped pai myght 
In pair^ bokes find sum skill whi 
J>at he was blynd so hastily. 

JJe Emp^rowr^ went hame ogayn ; 2615 

Afid pe clerkes did al pair<? payn 
In ])air^ bokes for to fynd 
Why pe Emp^rowr^ was blind. 

"Opon a day sone efter pan, 
]7e clerkes met with an aid man ; 2620 

2592 R pair. — 2593 R pare to suld. — 2594 R tell, J>air. — 2595 R Som. — 2596 
R vn tyll, full mykell. — 2597 R Both, toune, contre. — 2598 R witt, hair. — 2599 
R diu^rse. — 2601 R lyfed, arroure. — 2602 R rycher, Emp^froure. — 2603 R 
Emp^rour. — 2605 R yhate, ryde. — 2606 R his, ylka syde. — 2607 R be come, 
any stane. — 2610 R couth nonekyn. — 261 1 y? respyte a seuen nyght. — 2613^ 
pair, fynd som skyll. — 2615 R Emp(?rour, o gayne.^2616 R dyd all hair mayne. 
^2617 R hair, fynde. — 261S R Whi, Empt-rour, blynde. — 2620 R mett, ane 
old. 77^1? two folios of R which shoidd come here (and be numbered 124, I2j) are 
incorrectly placed after folio 12J {and so are nu7nbered 126, 12"/). Folios 124, 123 
according to the numbering of R should come just before folio ijo. 



go THE SEVEN SAGES 

To him j'ai talde al J'air^ cownsayl, 
An^ he said : * Sirs, withowten fayl, 
JJar^ es no man pat now life hase 
pat can jow cownsail in pis case, 
Bot a childe pat es faderles ; 2625 

t An£l I can noght say whar^ he es. 

He can jow tell ful pwperly 
What jowr^ asking sal sygnyfi,' 

"J>e mayst^rs wald no lenger byde, 
To seke pe chyld fast gan pai ride. 2630 

Sum rade est, and sum rade west, 
Whar<? pai hoped to fynd him best. 
A fourtenyght pus gan pai ride, 
And soght pe childe on ilka syde. [39 d] 
At pe last rade )'ai thurgh a town 2635 

Whar^ childer played pam vp and down ; 
J'ai saw a childe par^ bete anoper. 
And called him lurdan, deuils broj'er : 
* Ipou ert pe deuils son of blode ! 
J>ou dose ay euil and neuer gode ! 2640 

Faderles lurdan I pe call ! ' 
J)arof record bar^ pai all. 

" Twa of pe mayst^rs herd ful wele 
Al pair^ fliting ilka dele. 

Merlyn saw he was aspied, 2645 

And fast he said his felows lied; 
He said : ' I se twa clerkes her<? 
J>at has me soght on sides fer^; 
J>ai wil haue me vnto Rome 
Of sertayn poyntes to gif pam dome.' 2650 



2621 J? tald all hair counsail. — 2622 I? with outen. — 2623 J? lyfe. — 2624 R 
kan yhow counsail. — 2625 i? child. — 2626 J\ kan. — 2627^ lean yhow, full. — 
2628 R yhowr askyng sail signify. — 2629 A" maist^rs. — 261,0 R child, ryde. — 
2631 R Som, som. — 2633 R ryde. — 2634 R child. — 2635 R toune. — 2636/" 
playd, doune. — 2637 R child, ane other. — 2638 R cald, deuels. — 2639 R deuels. 
— 2640 R euell, gude. — 2642 R hare of. — 2643 ^^ maist<?rs, full. — 2644 R All 
hair flytyng. — 2645 R aspyed. — 2646 R lyed. — 2648 R sydes. — 2649 R will. — 
2650 R sertaine, gyf. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 9I 

pe maist<?rs come pan to ]'e childe, 

And spak vnto him wordes milde : 

'Childe,' pai said, 'what es ])i name?' 

' Merlyn,' he sayd, 'I hat at hame.' 

So come a gudeman of jie land, 2655 

And broght a besand til ofrand. 

To Merlyn he it gaf in hi. 

And he said : ' Sir, pou ert hasty 

For to wit ])i dremyng sone ; 

J7at might ger pe be vndone. 2660 

Bot sen pou proiers me ])is mede, 

J>i dreme I am redy to rede. 

" ' J7e thoght pou saw in pi myding 
A fair^ well and wzter vp spryng ; 
J>e wat^r was of swete sauowri?, 2665 

And serued pe and pi neghbour^. 
It menes pus : par in pat molde 
Es a grete hurd al of golde ; 
In pi midding pis find pou may. 
Go we peder sone and assay.' 2670 

With pe man went pai al bidene, 
To loke if pis sold soth be sene. 
When pai come to pe mydyng, 
]?e childe gert hakkes and spades bri;/g. 
Down in pe grund a hole pai grayd ; 2675 

pai fand a hord, als he had sayd, 
J>at was al ful of rede guide. 
J>e gudeman bad tak what pai wolde ; 
And in pat town ilka neghbowr<? 
Made he riche with pat tresowr^'. 2680 

f>e mayst^/'S toke gold at pair^ likyng ; [40 a] 

2651 J^ chid. — 2652 /? myld. — 2653 /? Child. — 2654 J? said, hate. — 2655 /? 
gud man. — 2656 ^ tyll offrand. — 2657 J? hy. — 2659 /? witt. — 2660 /? myght. — 
2663 /\ myddyng. — 2664 Ji^ fair. — 2665 /? sauoure. — 2667 J? mold. — 2668 /? gret 
hord all, gold. — 2669 J^ myddyng, fynd. — 2670 J? Hder. — 267 1 /? all bi dene. — 
2672 A' suld. — 2673 ^ myddyng. — 2674 J? child, bryng. — 2675 /? Doune, ground. 

— 2677 J? all full, red gold. — 2678 J? gud man, wold. — 2679 -^ toune, neghbowre. 

— 2680 Jv rych, tresoure. — 2681 ^ maist^rs, ^air lykyng. 



92 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Bot Merlyn wald ))arof nathing. 
pe maist^rs went to Rome ogayn, 
And toke with J)am J^at lytel swaine. 

"Als ]'ai went opon ))air^ way, 2685 

J>ai asked pe childe if he kowth say, 
Or any sertayn reson fynd, 
Why J)e Emp^rour^ was blynd. 
Merlyn said : ' §a, sekerly, 

I can 50W tel encheson why.' 2690 

JJan war pe maist^/s wonder blyth, 
A/id vnto Rome )'ai hied ]'am swith. 
When pe day come pat ])am was set, 
To cour^t pai come withow[t]en let ; 
A?/d to pe Emperoure gan pai say : 2695 

'Sir, we er cumen to hald our^ day.' 
He said : ' Can je tel myne askyng } ' 
'Nay, syr,' pai sayd, 'by heuyn kyng ; 
Bot her^ a child, syr, haue we broght, 
Jjat can tel jow al yowr^ thoght.' 2700 

J>e Emprrour^ said : ' Wil je warand 
His answer opon lyfe and land .-' ' 
•§a, sir,' pai said, 'opon al thyng 
We vndertak hys answeryng.' 

]?e Empe-rour^ said: 'Tel, if pou can.' 2705 

J?e child said: 'Gose to chamber pan, 
And j'ar^ sal I tel jow ful right 
Why pat je haue lorn jowr^ sight.' 

"Into ]'e chamber pai went onane, 
"pe Emp^rowr^ and pe clerkes ilkane. 2710 

2682 J? >are of. — 2683 Ji o gayne. — 2684 y? lytell swayne. — 2685 MS. And, 
^ J>air. — 2686 J? child, couth. — 2687 A' sertaine. — 26S8 J? Whi, Emp^rour. — 
2689 J? yha sikerly. — 2690 A* kan yhow tell. — 2691 A' blythe. — 2692 A' hyed, 
swythe. — 2693 /? sett. — 2694 AfS. with owen, A" court, wt't/t outen lett. — 2696 A' 
comen, our. — 2697 A^ kan yhe tell. — 2698 A" sir, said be heuen. — 2699 A" sir. — 
2700 A* kan tell yhow all yhour. — 2701 A' Emp^rour sayd will yhe. — 2703 A" Yha, 
all. — 2704 A' his. — 2705 /? Emp^rour, tell, kan. — 2706 A" chaumbre. — 2707 A" 
sail, tell yhow full ryght. — 2708 A" Whi, yhe, yhoiir syght. — 2709-11 A" iorn or 
faded for the first six, three, and arte letters respectively. — 2709 R chaumber. 
— 2710 R [E]mp^rour. 






THE SEVEN SAGES 93 

Opon his bed he set him down, 

And bad pe child say his resown. 

'Sir,' said Merlyn to pe Emp^rour(f, 

'Vnder ])i bed in ]ns bowre, 

In ]7e grunde ful depe j^ar down, 2715 

Es an welland calderowne. 

With seuen walmes day and nyght ; 

And, sir, pat has J^e reft \\ syght. 

Ai whils ]>a walmes boyland bene, 

Sal J'ou neut'r with eghen sene ; 2720 

J>a walmes if men fordo myght, 

JJan sal ])ine eghen be fair^ a7id bright.' 

"]7e Empt'rour^ had wonder of pis. 
Sone gert he remu his bed, iwis. 

And in pe erth pai delued down 2725 

Vntil pai come to pe caldrown 
J>at had walmes boiland seuyn ; 
)?an trowed pai wele pe childes steuy«. [40 b] 
J>an sayd pe Emp,?rour^, san fayl : 
'Childe, I wil do pi cownsayl. 2730 

Say me son by sum resowne 
What bymenes pis calderowne.' 
^ " ]?e childe said : ' Sir, withowten dout, 

Biddes pe maistifrs wend parout ; 

JJan sal I tel jow pe tale til ende.' 2735 

J>e Emp^rour,? bad pai sold forth wende ; 
f>arin lete he no man dwell. 
J>an pe childe bigan to tell ; 
'Sir,' he said, 'pir walmes seuyn 
§owr^ seuy;/ mayst^rs bitakens euy// ; 2740 

z^w R sett, doune. — 2712 R resoune. — 2714 y*? boure. — 2715 R ground full, 
J>are doune. — 2716 j? a, calderoune. — 2719 R Ay. — 2720 R Sail.- — 2722 R sail, 
fair, bryght. — 2723 R Emp,frour. • — 2724 R remew, I wys. — 2725 R doune. — 
2726 A' vntill, calderoune. — 2727 R boyland seuen. — 2728 R steuen. — 2729 R 
said, Emp^'rour sazfayl. — 2730 R Child, will, counsail. — 2731 R be som resoune. 
— 2732 R bi menes, calderoune. ■ — 2733 R child, sr v^iih outen. — 2734 R Byddes, 
wendes ('are out. — 2735 R sail, tell yhow, till. — 2736 R Emp^rour, suld. — 2737 
R J^are in. — 2738 R child. — 2739 R seuen. — 2740 R Yhour seuen maist^rs be 
takens euen. 



94 THE SEVEN SAGES 

]?ai haue raysed custums new 

J)at je may ful sare rew. 

Yf ani dremes day or night, 

JJai sal cum sone bifor*? ])air(? syght 

And bring a besant to ofryng, 2745 

An{/ gif it for )>air dreme redeing : 

J>ai rede ])e dremys J'an als ]iaw likes ; 

§owr^ maist^rs ]ms ]'e men biswikes. 

And for ]ns syn, sir, wele I finde, 

Er })ine eghen bicomen so blynde.' 2750 

" pe Emp<?rour^ sayd : ' Sen it es so, 
Sai me what es best to do.' 
J)e childe said : ' Sir, for jowr^ byhoue. 
By ane of ]'am I rede je p^^ue. 
If ))at ]'e eldest sone be slane, 2755 

pe moste walm sal sese onane.' 
J>e Emp^rour^ bad his men ful tyte 
J>e eldest maystd'r heuid of smyte ; 
And als sone als |'at ded was done, 
])e grettest walme sesed ful sone. 2760 

J>an gert J^e Emp<frour<f, sone onane, 
Sla ])e maist^rs euerilkane. 

]7e wat^r wex ])an cald and lyth ; , 

J>e Emp(?rour^ |)an was ful blyth. 
Merlyn wasshed his eghen twa ; 2765 

pan myght he se to ride and ga. 
J>us had ]>e Emp^rour^ his sight, 
And ]>e maist^rs lost pair^ myght. 

*' Sir, ]ms er je bigiled euyn 
And blinded by jowr^ Maist^rs Seuyn. 2770 

2742 J? yhe, full. — 2743 ^ If ^"Y' "Yght- — 2744 /? sail come, be for >air. — • 
2745 /? bryng, besand tyll offryng. — 2746 /? gyf, )>air, redyng. — 2747 /? dremes, 
lykes. — 2748 /? Yho«r, be swykes. — 2749 i? fynd. — 2750 A" be comen, blynd. — 
2751 J? Emp<rrour said. — 2752 /? Say. — 2753 ^ child, yhour bi houe. — 2754 7? 
Bi, red yhe. — 2756 Id mast walme sail. — 2757 V? Empifrour, full. — 2758 /? 
maist^rr heued. — 2759 A" all sone, dede. — 2760 y?gretest, full. — 2761 /? Empi?rour. 
— 2763 J? lythe. — 2764 7? Emp^rour, full blythe. — 2765 j'? wasched. — 2766 ^ 
ryde. — 2767 J? Emp^rour, syght. — 2768 /? J^air. — 2769 /? yhe be gyld euen. — 
2770 i? blynded, yhour, seuen. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 95 

If je do eiter ])air(? rede, 
Ful euyl way J^ai wil jow lede. 
So was Herod for his trowing 
Nerehand broght to euyl ending." 

]?e Emp^rourif said: "Nay, sertes, dame, [40c] 2775 
]?ai sal neuer do me slike shame ; 
To ded ar^ sold pai al be dyght." 
"Sertes," sho said, "pan dose }'0u right." 
" Dame, I hete )'e in pis stede, 

p>at mi son sal tomorn be dede ; 2780 

]^ar sal nane borow him ira bale." 
J>us endes ]>e elleuynd tale. 

Here Bigins pe Twelft Prolong. 

Sone at morn bifor ]ie sun 
]:?e Emp(?rour<? rase, als he was won. 
He come omang his knyghtes all, 2785 

And gert his turmentowr^ furth call. 
He bad his son pat he sold bring, 
And on pe galows high hiw hyng. 
For mani knightes and burias come 
For to her^ pe childes dome ; 2790 

J>e Emp^rouri? wald haue no rede, 
Bot said algates he sold be ded. 
A?id right so cuwes into pe hall 
)?e sest maist^r omang pam all. 

He said : " Sir Emp^rour^, lord of pr/se, 2795 

In pi werkes pou ert noght wise ; 
Ilk man has mat^r pe to blame ; 
\aroi pe burd think mekil shame. 

2771 i^yhe, pair. — 2772 ^ffuUeuell, will yhow. — ^112,^ trowyng. — 2774 Z' tyll 
euell endyng. — 2775 ^ Emp^rour. — 2776 R sail do me na slyke schame. — 2777 
jVsuld, all. — 2778 R scho, ryght. — 2780 R my, sail. — 2781 R hare sail. — 2782 
R eWeuend. — //eaditig R bigyns, MS., R xii. — 2783 R son. — 2784 R rayse. — 
2786 R turmentoure forth. — 2787 R suld bryng. — 2788 R hegh. — 2789 R many 
knyghtes. — 2791 R Emp^-rour. - — 2792 R all gates, suld, dede. — 2793 y? ryght, 
comes. — 2794 R sext. — 2795 ^ pryse. — 2798 R jjare of, mykell schame. 



96 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Sen ])at ]'Ou wil trow na whise rede, 
Bot wrang wil ger J)i son be ded, 2800 

J>at ilk chance bifal to ]e 
Als fel a knyght of |)is cuntre 
JJat hurt his whife finger w/t/« a knif, 
And for ])at sorow lost hys life." 
J>e Empifrour^ said : " On al maner^", 2805 

Maist<?r, )iat tale most I hert'." 
He said : " Sir, grant )'i son respite. 
And I sal tel it ])e ful tite." 
J>e Emp^/'our,? said: " Blethly he sale." 
And ]'an ])e maystt'r tald his tale. 2810 

rStory XII. -| 
L Vidua. J 

J>e Twelft Tale Sayd Maist^r I esse. 

J>e maist^r said : " Bi God of might, 
In fis cuntre wond a knight 
J>at wedded had a ful fair^ whif. 
And lufed hir mor^ J'an his life ; 
And sho lufed \i\m wele, als him thoght, 2815 

For eft^r his wil ai sho wroght. 
So on a day, bifor^ his whife, 
To ]ie knight was gifen a fetyce knife ; [40 d] 
And als pai plaied with ])e knif bard', 
A litel in hir fynger he shari?. 2820 

And when he saw pe blude rede, 
For sorow he said he sold be ded ; 
A?id so he was sone on ]ie morow. 
^ J>an ]'e whife made mekyl sorow : 

Sho wrang hir hend aJid made il cher^. 2825 

2799 R will, wise. — 2800 R will, dede. — 2801 R chaunce bi fall. — 2802 R fell, 
contre. — 2803 A" wife fynger, knyfe. — 2804 R his lyfe. — 2805 j? Empi?rour. — 
2807 R g^aunt, respyte. — 2808 R sail tell, full tyte. — 2809 R Emp^rour, salle. — ■ 
2810 ^ maist^-r. — Heading MS., R xii., R said. — 28 11 R '^^ for pe, be, myght. 

— 2812 J*? contre, knyght. — 2813 R full fair wyfe. — 2814 R lyfe. — 2815 i? scho. 

— 2816 R will ay scho. — 2817 R wyfe. — 2818 R knyght, gyfen, fetyse knyfe. — 
2819 R played, knyfe. — 2820 R lytell, schare. — 2821 R blode. — 2822 R suld, 
dede. — 2823 R in. — 2824 R wife, mykell. — 2825 R Scho, ill. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 97 

J>e cors was sone broght on a ber^, 

With torches and series fair^ brinand, 

And p/rstes and freres fast si//gand. 

For him ]'ai delt seluer and golde ; 

And sone he was broght vnder molde. 2830 

"When pe knight ]'us grauen was, 
J>e lady cried atid sayd ' Alias ! ' 
And hardily, sho said, na man 
Sold male hir fra pat graue to gan ; 
Bot on fat graue ai wald sho ly, 2835 

And for hir lordes luf wald sho dy. 
Al hir frendes gederd ]'are 
For to cumforth hir of card*. 
'Dame,' pai said, '■^ar charite, 

Of j'iself ]'Ou haue pete. 2840 

JJou ert fair^ of hide and hew, 
fJou may haue knightes nobil inowe ; 
Atid sen pou ert both jong and fayre, 
J^ou mai haue childer to be pine air^. 
It es na bote to mak murni;/g ; 2845 

Al sal we dy bath aid and ^ing.' 
J>e lady said oft sipes : ' Alias ! 
Out of )>is place sal I neu^r pas 
Til I be ded with him alswa ! ' 
]7an hir frendes was ful wa. 2850 

" Na man might for na preching 
J>e lady fra pe graue bring ; 
And euil pam thoght par^ to dwell ; 
p>arfor^ pai did als I sal tell : 
]?ai made a loge jie graue biside, 2855 



2827 R fair brynand. — 2828 R syngand. • — 2829 R syluer, gold. — 2830 R 
mold. — 2831 R knyght. — 2832 R cryed, said. — 2833 R scho, mane. — 2834-/? 
Suld, gane. — 2S35 R ay, scho. — 2836 R scho. — 2837 A' All. — 2838 R comforth. 
— 2839 R charyte. — 2841 R fair, hyde. — 2842 R knyghtes, In . . . . — 2843-4 R 
omits these lines. — 2845 R bute, mornyng. — 2846 R All sail, both, yhing. — 
2848 R sail. — 2849 ^ Till, all swa. — 2850 R full. — 2851 R No, myght, no 
pr^chyng. — 2852 R fro, bryng. — 2853 R euell. — 2854 R ^arfor, sail. — 2S55 R 
be syde. 



98 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Fra rain and hayl hir for to hide ; 

]7ai couerd it ouer ilka dele, 

Afid made a 'axe j^arin ful wele ; 

Mete and drink ))ai broght plente, 

And bad ]'e lady blith sold be. 2860 

Bot ett ne drink wald sho nothing ; 

Euer sho cried and made murni;;g. 

Hir frendes went oway ilkane, 

And ]ms )'e lady leued allane. 

" ]?at ilk day war outlaws thre [41 a] 2865 

Daw/pned and hanged on galow tre, 
And knightes war ))ai euerilkane. 
Ful many had fai robbed and slane ; 
JJarfor^ war ]iai hastily hent, 

And hanged so by right iugement. 2870 

AnoJ^er knyght of }'at cuntre 
Fel for to kepe ))a theues thre 
On ])e galows al pat nyght, 
Als it was resown and right. 

For, sirs, je sal wele vnderstand, 2S75 

He gaf na ferm els for his land 
Bot for to kepe fe galows a night 
When ))ar^ hang gentel me;/ or knight ; 
And if ani ])an war oway, 
His landes sold he lose for ay. 2S80 

"]?e knight \i\m cled in nobil wede. 
And set him on a stalworth stede, 
And went to kepe )7e knightes thre 
J'at hanged on )?e galow tre. 

JJe frost fresed fast ]'arout ; 28S5 

JJe knight rides euer obout, 

2856 R rayne, haile, hyde. — 2858 ^fyre })are in full. — 2859 R drynk. — 2860 R 
blythe suld. — 2861 R ete, drynk, scho nathing. — 2862 MS. shied, R scho cryed, 
mornyng. — 2865 R outlawes. — 2867 R knyghtes. — 2S68 R ffull, MS. Robbed. — 
2869 i? And t>arfor. — 2870 R bi ryght. — 2871 R Ane other, centre. — 2872 R ffell. 
— 2873 -^ '^- — 2874 R resowne, ryght. — 2875 ^ Y^^ ^'^- — 2876 R no. -^2877 
7? nyght. — 2878 R gentyll man, knyght. — 2879 R any. — 2880 R suld. — 2881 R 
knyght, nobyll. — 2882 R sett. — 2883 R knyghtes. — 2884 R hynged. — 2885 R 
[)>e frosjt frecsed, )>are out. — 2886 R [be kjnyght rydes. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 99 

Biside |'e galows vp and down, 

So was he dredand of tresown. 

So grete cald come him vnto 

]7at he ne wist what he might do. 2890 

Toward )'e toun luked ]'e knyght ; 

He saw a fir^ brin fair<? aiui bright 

In ])e kirk-jerd of ]'e town ; 

And peder fast he made hym boun. 

Vnto ]'e loge he come onane ; 2895 

J>e lady ]'are he fyndes allane. 

To cal and speke wald he noght spar^. 

]?e lady sais sone : 'Wha es ])ar^ ? ' 

'I am a knyght l)at wald me warm, 

And wend my way withowten harm.' 2900 

]7e lady said : ' By him me boght, 

Herin, sir, ne cuwes ])OU noght ! ' 

' Lat me cuw in, dame, I pe pray.' 

J>e lady said ful sadly: 'Nay.' 

•A, dame,' he said, 'me es ful kalde ; 2905 

A litel while wharm me I walde.' 

•Sir,' sho said, 'bi him me boght. 

In ]ns close ne cuwes j'ou noght ! ' 

' A, dame,' he said, ' ^ar charyte, 

]7ar^ sal na man wit bot we.' 2910 

]7e knyght spak so with ))e lady 

]7at in he come and sat hir by, [41 b] 

And warmed him wele at his will. 

]^e lady gret and gaf hir ill. 

"}7an said pe knight to hir in hy : 2915 

< Dame, whi ertou so sary. 
And whi ertou pus her^ allane, 

2887 R . . syde, doune. — 2888 R tresoune. — 28S9 R gret. — 2890 J? myght. — 
2891 J? toune loked. — 2892 /? fyre bryn fair^bryght. — 2893 A' kyrk yherd, toune. 
— 2894 R Hder, him boune. — 2897 R call, spek. — 2899^ warme. — 2900 /? wttA 
outen harme. — 2901 A" be. — 2902 /? Here in, comes. — 2903 A" com. — 2904 J? 
full. — 2905 /? full cald. — 2906 A lytell, warme, wald. — 2907 A scho — 2908 R 
Here in sirne comes.— 2910 ^ sail, witt — 2912 i? satt — 2914 A grett. — 2915 
A knyght. — 2916 A ertow. — 2917 Ji ertow. 

1.0FC. 



100 THE SEVEN SAGES 

A?id so with murning makes ])i mane ? 

Tel me, gude dame, I ]'e pray, 

And I sal help ]'e if I may.' 2920 

Sho said : ' Sir, I am wil of rede, 

For my lord es fra me dede. 

And right her^ es he laid in graue; 

Swilk a lord mu« I neuer haue; 

He lufed me euer ful stedfastly : 2925 

)?arfor^ here wil I lif and dy.' 

"J>e knyght said: 'Dame, J^ou ert a fole 
JJat )'Ou makes so mekyl dole. 
What helpes it so to sorow fe 

For thing ]>at may noght mended be ? 2930 

J>iseluen mai ]'Ou so forfar.?. 
And him ogayn gettes ))Ou na mar^. 
I rede ]'0u morn na mar^ ])arfori? ; 
J>ou may haue ane worth twenti scor^. 
]?arfor^, dame, do efter me, 2935 

Arid lat now al pi murni//g be ; 
I rede ]'0U luf som o]'er knyght 
J?at may )ie cuwforth day and night' 
'Nay,' sho said, 'sir, by Saint lohn, 
Swilk a lord get I neuer none 2940 

JJat so mekil wil mensk me, 
Ne suffer my will als did he. 
For to seke fra hethin till Ynde 
Swilk a lord sold I neuer finde.' 

"When ]'e knight had warmed him a while, 2945 
He dred pat men sold do hi;// gile, 
To stele som of )'e hanged men. 
And ger him lose his landes pen. 
He toke his leue of pe lady, 

2918 R mornyng. — 2919 R Tell, gud. — 2920 R sail. — 2921 R Scho, will. — 
2923 R ryght, layd. — 2924 R mon. — 2925 R full. — 2926 R )>arfor, will, lyf. — 
2928 R mykell. — 2931 R may. — 2932 R getes, no. — 2933 R red, no. — 2934 R 
twenty. — 2935 R >arfor. — 2936 R latt, all, mornyng. — 2937 R red. — 2938 R 
comforth, nyght. — 2939 R scho, lohan. — 2940 R gett. — 2941 R mykell will. 
— 2943 R fro. — 2944 R suld, fynde. — 2945 R knyght. — 2946 R suld, gyle. 



THE SEVEN SAGES lOi 

A?id went to his hors hastily. 2950 

Vnto |ie galows rides he ; 

And sone he myssed ane of \q thre. 

J>an was );e knyght ful sary man ; 

He hopid to tyne his landes ilkane. 

He thoght wemen kowth gif gud rede 2955 

Vnto men ]'at had grete nede. 

He was noght fer fro pe lady ; 

Ogayn he rides ful hastily. 

He cald als he bifor^ had done, [41 c] 

And in ]'an was he laten sone. 2960 

He said he had mor^ sorow pan sho, 

And assed wat was best to do. 

Al ]'e soth he gan hir say 

How his o knight was stollen oway. 

" f>an spak ]'e lady to ]ie knight : 2965 

' Say me ])e soth, sir, if ])ou myght, 
If ])Ou has any whif at hame ? ' 

* Nay,' he said, 'by swete Saint lame, 
Whif ne leman had I neuer.' 

*Sir,' sho said, 'so es me leuyr ; 2970 

Ful wele sal ])Ou helped be, 
If ]'at J'ou wil wed me.' 

* §is, dame,' he said, 'by swete Ihesus ! ' 
When ])ai had made pair^ cownand ]>us, 

'Sir, tak we vp )ns cors,' sho sayd, — 2975 

' J»is ilk day her^ was he layd, — 

And hang \\\m vp for him pat failes.' 

)7e knight was paid of pir' counsaikj': 

Out of pe graue pai toke pe cors ; 

J7e knight him led opon his hors. 2980 

J>an said ]'e knyght to hir in hy : 

2951 H rydes. — 2953 ii f ull. — 2954 i^ hoped. — 2955 7? couth gyf. — 2956 i? 
gret. — 2958 R Ogayne, rydes full. — 2959 R be fore. — 2961 R scho. — 2962 
A' asked what. — 2963 R All. — 2964 R knyght. — 2965 R knyght. — 2967 R haue, 
wife. — 2968 R be. — 2969 R Wife, lewman. — 2970 R scho, leuer. — 297 1 R ffull, 
sail. — 2972 R will. — 2973 R Yhis, be. — 2974 R conand. — 2975 R scho said. — 
2977 R hyng, fayles. — 2978 R knyght, payd, hir counsayles. — 2980 R knyght. 



102 THE SEVEN SAGES 

* Dame, j'ou most hang him sertanli ; 
For if )'at I hanged a knight, 

Mine honors war lorn by ]'at vnright.' 

"JJe lady said: 'So haue I sele, 29S5 

I sal hang hym wonder wele.' 
Sho did J^e rape obout his hals ; 
In hir faith sho was ful fals ; 
Sho drogh him vp and fest him fast, 
'Lo,' sho said, 'now sal ]ns last.' 2990 

'Dame,' said Jie knight, 'habide a stou//d : 
He ]'at her^ hanged had a wonde. 
In l^e forheuyd wele to knaw ; 
Swilkane on ]ns byhoues vs shaw, 
Or els tomorn, in lytel while, 2995 

Wil be p^rcayued al our^ gile.' 
'Sir,' sho said, 'draw owt ]n swei^de ; 
To smite him thar pe noght be fered. 
Smite my lord whar<?som ]je list. 
J>an sal noght )'i man be mist.' 3000 

* Nay, dame,' he said, 'for al fis rike 
A ded knyght wald I noght strike.' 
Sho said : * Tak me ])i swerd ]'e fra. 
And I sal merk him or we ga.' 

He tald hir whar<? ])at sho sold smyte, 3005 

Afid on ])e heuyd sho hit him tite. [41 d] 

" JJan )'e knyght wele vnderstode 
J>at sho was cuwen of vnkind blode. 
' Dame,' he said, ' by heuen rike, 
git es noght J'is J^at oper lyke ; 3010 



2982 R sertainly. — 2983 R hynged, knyght. — 2984 R My honoure, bi, vnryght. 

— 2986 R sail, him. — 2987 R Scho dyd. — 29S8 R fayth scho, full. — 2989 R Scho. 

— 2990 R scho, sail. — 2991 R knyght habyde, stounde. — 2992 R hynged, wounde. 

— 2993 J*? forheued. — 2994 i? bi houes, schaw. — 2995 R lytell. — 2<)^6 R Will, 
p^rsayued all our gyle. — 2997 R scho, out, swerd. — 2998 R smyte, ferd, MS. 
lered. — 2999 R Smyte, lyst. — 3000 R sail, myst. — 3001 R all, ryke. — 3002 R 
stryke. — 3003 R Scho. — 3004 R sail. — 3005 R scho suld. — 3006 R heued 
scho hytt, tyte. — 3008 R scho, comen, vnkynd. — 3009 R be, ryke. — 3010 R 
Yhit, J>e toth^r. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 103 

His forteth war al smeten out' 

'Sir,' sho said, ' parof no dowt ; 

Smites out his teth, biliue, lat se.' 

'Nay, dame,' he said, 'so mot I the, 

I wil do him no velany ; 3015 

He was a knyght, a7id so am 1/ 

J>an )7e whif sone toke a stane 

And smate his fortheth out ilkane. 

When sho had on pis wise done, 

Sho said vnto ])e knight ful sone : 3020 

'Sir, now sal pou wed me.' 

'Nay, dame,' he sayd, 'so mot I the! 

Kxe wald I swer<? to wed na wife, 

Or I with ])e sold lede my lyfe ; 

For ])Ou wald hang me with a cord, 3025 

Right als )'0u has done ]n lord. 

Swilk sorow has }'0u shewed me now 

JJat I sal neuer no wemen trow.'" 

]?an said pe maist<?r to pe Emp<?/-owr<?: 
" I pray Vclcsw, our Sauiowri?, 3030 

J>at to pe fal si ike velany 
Als did ]'is knyght of his lady, 
If J)Ou for kownsail of Jn whife- 
Reues pi fair^ son his life. 

Spar^ him, sir, vntil tomorow ; 3035 

Vnto hir sal fal al pe sorow. 
For, sertes, sir, pi son sail speke ; 
By righ[t]wis dome pan pou him wreke." 
f>e Emp(frour^ said : " So mot I gang. 
And I mai wit wha haues pe wrang, 3040 

A7id wha pe right, sir, pan sal I 

3011 R all smyten. — 3012 R scho, \>2xt of na dout. — 3013 R Smytes, bi lyue. 
— 3015 y? will, vilany. — 3017 j'? wife. — 3018 R fortetli. — 3019 R scho. — 3020 
R Scho, knyght full. — 3021 R sail. — 3022 R said. — 3023 R wyfe. — 3024 R 
suld. — 3027 R schewed. — 3029 R Emp^roure. — 3030 i? our sauyoure. — 3031 R 
fall swilk vilany. — 3033 R counsail, wyfe. — 3034 R Reue, fair, lyfe. — 3036 
R sail fall all. — 3038 MS. righwisdome, R Bi ryghtwis dome bou sail. — 3039 R 
Emp<frour. — 3040 R may witt. — 3041 R ryght, sail. 



104 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Deme pam bath ful rightwisly." 
J>an ]'e mayster went hys way. 
JJus was J'e clerk saued pat day. 

Here Bygins f>e Threttende Prolong. 

When it was )'e tyme of nyght, 3045 

J>e Emp^rour^ to bed hym dyght. 
JJe Empmce als went him tyll ; 
No word sho said, bot held hir still ; 
And al night thoght sho by what rede 
]?at sho myght ger ]?e child be dede. 3050 

On J'e morn, when day was lyght, [42 a] 
f'e Emp^rour^ rase vp ful right. 
Sho saw he wald no langer ly, 
Atid vp sho rase ful hastyly. 

Sho vmbithoght hir of a gyn, 3055 

How ]'at sho might best bigyn. 
Sho said : ** Sir, herd je neuer ])e geste, 
Why men makes ]>e foles feste ? " 
" Na, dame," he said, " so mot I the ! 
If ])ou it wate, tel it to me." 3060 

"Sir," sho said, "with ful gude cher^; 
A nobil tale her<? sal je her^." 
rstory xiii.-| 

L Roma. J 

p»e Threttende Tale Said ]?e Wyfe. 

"f>is cete, sir, withowten dout, 
Was sumtyme enseged obout. 
With seuyn hathen kinges dai and night, 3065 

3042 R full ryghtwisly. — 3043 R maist^r, his. — Headhig R bigyns, MS., R xiii. 
— 3046 R him. — 3048 R scho, styll. — 3049 R all nyght, scho be. — 3050 R scho. 
• — 3052 R Emp^rour rayse, full ryght. — 3053 R Scho. — 3054 R scho rayse full 
hastily. — 3055 R Scho vm- by thoght. — 3056 A" scho myght. — 3057 R Scho, 
yhe. — 3058 R Whi. — 3060-2 R mutilated for Jirst four, three, and one letters 
respectively. — 3060 R tell. — 3061 R scho, full gud. — 3062 R noble, sail yhe. — 
Heading MS., R xiii., R sayd. — 3063 R v/itA outen. — 3064 R som tyme. — 3065 
R seuen, kynges day, nyght. 



.THE SEVEN SAGES 10$ 

For to wyn yt if pai myght. 

J>ai made ful mani asautes fell ; 

Al Cristendom ])ai thoght to quell. 

J>e Romaynes |>at might wapen welde, 

Defended |)am with sper^ and shelde ; 3070 

}7e walles ful hardily ])ai held, 

Atid mani hathen folk J>ai feld. 

Bot of pe Sarezins had ]'ai dowt 

pat nane durst pas pe jates w/t//out. 

An old man pan, of grete honourt', 3075 

Spak vnto pe Emptv-our^-: 

' Sir, and \o\x wil do eftt'r me, 

A gude cownsail I sal tel pe, 

To save pis cete and pi men,' 

J>e Emp^rour^ said: 'f>at wald I ken.' 3080 

' To seuyn clerkes, sir, takes pis toun, 

To jeme it fra destrucciowne, — 

O payn to lose pair^ lyves all 

If any faut to pis toun fall.' 

"J?e Emp<?rour^ pan pe toun gan take 3085 

To seuyn maist^rs at kepe and wake. 
A moneth pai it jemed wele, 
So pat no man faut might fele. 
When it come to pe moneth end, 
JJai might no lenger it defend. 3090 

J>an ordand ])ai a fayr^" quayntise ; 
Herkin, sir, on whatkin wise. 
Lenger might pai noght wele last, 
For pair^ vetayles failed fast ; 

J'arfor<? pai ordand, by pair^- wit, 3095 

How pat pai might best be quit. [42 b] 

3066 R it. ^ — 3067 R full many. — 3068 R All. — 3069 R Romayns, weld. — 
3070 R Offended, scheld. — 3071 R full. — 3072 R many. — 3073 R sarezyns, 
dout. — 3074 R pass, yhates. — 3075 R Ana, gret. — 3077 R will. — 3078 R 
gud counsail, sail tell. — 3080 j^ Empi?rour. — 3081 R seuen, toune. — 3082 R 
yheme, destruccioune. — 3083 R l^air. — 3084 R toune. — 3085 R Emp^rour, toune. 
— 3086 R seruen. — 3087 R yhemed. — 3088 A' myght. — 3090 R myght. — 3091 R 
ordaind, fair quayntyse. — 3092 R Herken, whatkyn wyse. — 3093 R myght. — 3094 
A' hair vetailes f aylest. — 3095 A' par for, ordaind be pair wytt. — 3096 R myght, quytt. 



I06 THE SEVEN SAGES 

"Ane of )'a clerkes hight Genus; 
He was ful quaynt and cautelus ; 
And eiter him es named lenuert', 
J>at es a moneth of pe jere. 3100 

A garment to him gert he mak, 
Side and wide and wonder blak. 
He gert it dub, fra top til to, 
With swerel tailes ful blak also. 
JJan gert he ordain a veser^ ■ 3105 

With twa faces and fowl of cher^. 
With lang noses and mowthes wide, 
And vgly eres on ai))er syde ; 
With eghen ])at war ful bright and cler^, 
And brade ilkone als a sawser<?; 31 10 

With brade tonges and bright glowand, 
Als it war a fir^-brand. 

" When he had on ])is wise done, 
pe folk of Rome he sembled sone, 
And bad ])am fast, withouten fayl, 31 15 

Ordain j'am vnto batayl. 
Al ])ai answerd him vntil, 
JJai sold be redy at his will, 
On ]'e morn, with sheld and sper^. 
J?e maist^'r ]'an dyd on his ger^, 3120 

And went vp in a towr,? on hight, 
Whar^ ])e Sarzins se him myght. 
His veser on his heued he kest ; 
A bright merur^ ohoxine he fest ; 
Twa swerdes out gan he brayd, 3125 

And grete strakes obowt him laid. 

3097 y? hyght. — 3098 J? full. — 3100 A' yhere. — 3101 /? make. — 3102 J? 
Syde, wyde, blake. — 3103 J? till. — 3104 A' swerell tayles full, all so. — 
3105 V? ordaine, visere. — 3106 J? foule. — 3107 A" mouthes wyde. — 3108 
IV other, J? ayther. — 3109 J? full bryght. — 3111 A' bryght. — 3115 /? fayle. 
— 3116 A^ Ordaine, batayle. — 3117 A' All, vntyll. — 3118 A" suld. — 3119 
/^ scheld. — 3121 /? in till a toure. — 3122 A' sarezyns. — 3123 J^ visere. — 
3124 A' bryght meroure, W aboue. — 31 -$ ^ brayde. — 3126 A' gret, o bout, 
layde. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 



107 



He made als mekil dyn and boste 
Als he had foghten ogayns an ost. 

"When Jie Sarsins saw |)is meruail, 
JJai wald no lenger bede batayl. 3130 

SuOT wend for pe merurt' lyght, 
J>at it war ane angel bright, 
J>at God had sent jieder, p<?rchance, 
On ])am for to tak vengance. 

So mekil light pe merurt' kast 3135 

]?at pe Sarzins fled ful fast. 
J>e maister made slike nois omell, 
Suw hoped he war ]'e fend of hell. 
JJai war so temped in pat tyde, 

]?ar(? pai durst no lenger bide. 3140 

J^ai opind pan pe jates of Rome, 
Aftd Cristend men fast efter come. 
J>e Emp^rowr^ and his men ilkane [42 c] 
Of pe Sarezins slogh gode wane ; 
Als mani als pai might ouertake, 3145 

Fast ])ai gan pair^ crownes crake. 
]:7ar<f wan pe Cristenmen honowr^, 
A7id mekil gold and gude armowri?. 
]7usgat Genus, pat was wise, 
Wan pe maystri by quaintise. , 3150 

"]?e mayst^rs of Rome afid buriayse 
Said he was worthi to prayse ; 
And none was so worthy als he 
Emp^rour^ of Rome to be. 

And right so, by pair^ aller dome, 3155 

J>ai made him Empe'rour^ of Rome. 

3127 R mykell. — 3128 R ane oste. — 3129 R sarezyns, m^ruaile. — 3130 R 
bataile. — 3131 R Som, meroure. — 3132 R aungell bryght. — 3133 R Hder p^-r- 
chaunce. — 3134 ^ vengaune. — 3135 -^mykell lyght, meroure. — 3136 R sarezyns, 
full. — 3137 R slyke noys. — 3138 j? Som, fende. — 3140 R byde. — 3141 j^opend, 
yhates. — 3143 R Emp^rour. — 3144 R sarezyns Jjus slogh gud. — 3145 ^ many, 
myght. — 3146 ^ gain, R crounes. — 3147 R honoure. — 3148 R mykell, gud 
armoure. — 3149 R ^usgate, wyse, W Gemis. — 3150 i? maistr* be quayntyse. — 
3151 R maist^rs. — 3153 IV otn. was, R worthi. — 3154 R Emp<f^our. — 3155-^ 
ryght, J'air. — 3156 R Emp^ronr. 



I08 THE SEVEN SAGES 

" Sir, ]ms sail J>i maist<:rs wise 
Decayue j'e with ))air<? quayntise ; 
And ]'0u mu« be ful fayn, may fall, 
On knese for to serue }'am all. 3160 

I prai to God it might be so, 
If )'0u mord' traystes ])am vnto ; 
For l^ai er nothing els obout 
Bot to mak pe ])air^ vnderlout. 

J>at sal men se ful sone, I trow, 3165 

And ])iself sal noght wit how 
Vntil pou lose al J'ine honowr*?. 
And suw of ))am be Emp,?rour^. 
§it war me leuer^ pat pai so wari? 
J>an pi son pat greues me sar<?," 3170 

"piis whe« pe Empirrour^' herd hir speke. 
He said als swith he sold hir wreke, 
And alsone sold his son be slayn. 
Sho thanked him and was ful fayn. 
J>an out of chamber gan pai pas. 3175 

J>us hir tale endid sho has. 

Here Bygins }?e Fourtend Prolong. 

J>e Emp^rour^ pan went to hall. 
His turmentowres son gert he call ; 
He bad pai sold let for nothing 
His son with scowrges for to dy«g; 31S0 

And when pat pai had sogatt'J done, 
He bad he sold be hanged sone : — 
"So pat I na mor^ him se, 
For mekil meneyng makes he me." 

3158 J*? Desayue, bair quayntyse. — 3159 K mon, full fayne. — 3 161 R pray, 
myght. — 3162 /? trayst more. — 3164 IV, A' make, /? hair. — 3165 R sail, full. — 
3166 R sail, wytt. — 3167 A' vn tyll, all, honoure. — 3168 A' som. — 3169 A" Yhit.— 
3172 J? swyth, suld. — 3173 A" als sone suld, slayne, W^ sone. — 3174 A* Scho, 
full fayne. — 3175 R chaumbre. — 3176 A' ended scho. — Heading W om., R 
bigyns, MS., R xiiii. — 3178 R turmento?/re sone. — 3179 R suld lett. — 3180 R 
skourges. — 3181 R sogate. — 3182 R suld, W honged. — 3183 A' no. — 3184 
R ffull mykell. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 109 

JJe childe pan out of |»e toun ))ai led, 3185 

So forbeten pat he bled. 

And right als pai went with him Jms, 

So come Maist(?r Maxencius. [42 d] 

He sese his scoler^ him bisyde ; 

He prays pe folk a while to byde. 3190 

A while pai hight to dwel par*? still ; 

JJe toun ful fast he hies him till. 

He come bifor^ pe Emp(frour^, 
And hailsed him with grete honowr^. 
He sayd : " Sir, pou ert hy iustise ; 3195 

p>e aght wele to be war a7id wise. 
Me think pou wirkis to pi reproue 
Onence pi son, pat pou sold loue. 
For a day wiltou be his frende, 
Anoper day pou wil him shende. 3200 

Al day mai men turn pi mode ; 
So fares foles pat can na gode, 
And namly pai pat dose pairi? dede 
Als wikked wemen wil pam rede. 
J>ou trowes ouer wele pi wiues tale, 3205 

JJat es obout to brew pe bale. 
If pi son til tomorn may lif. 
For nankins gode pou wald hi;;/ gif. 
And if ])0u by ]n wyues rede 

Ger do pi son to euil dede, 3210 

Swilk a chance mot fal to pe 
Als did ane erl of pis cuntre. 
He trowed mar^ of his wife a leghe 
f>an pat himself saw with his eghe." 

3185 j'? child, toune. — 3187 7? ryght. — 3188 W coxa. — 3I9Ij^ dwell, sty... — 
3192 A' toune full, hyes, tyll. — 3193 R bi for. — 3194 R haylsed, gret honoure. — 
3195 R said, hegh iustyse. — 3197 R wirkes. — 3198 R suld. — 3199 A" will I'ou. 

— 3200 R Ane other, will, schende, ^wilt. — 3201 R All, may. — 3202 R kan, 
W, R no, R gude. — 3203 R namely, j^air. — 3204 R wicked, will. — 3205 R wife. 

— 3207 R till, lyf. — 3208 R nanekyng gud, gyf. — 3209 R do instead of by, wyfe, 
fF wiues. — 3210 R euell. — 3211 R chaunce, fall. — 3212 R dyd, erell, contre. — 
3213 R legh. — 3214 R egh. 



no THE SEVEN SAGES 

J>e Emp^rour.? sayd : "Me think wele ])an 3215 
J>at he was no witty man, 
}?at his whife wordes trowed sold be 
Better ]»an ))at himself might se." 
" Sir," sayd ]'e maist^r, " so ertow ; 
For ))i whif tales wil jjou trow 3220 

Better ])an any o)jer rede ; 
And sho wald ger ))i son be ded. 
And if he haue ]ns day respite, 
Tomorn he sal himseluen quite. 

J>an sal ]'0u ])iseluen se 3225 

Wha haues ])e wrang, ]'i wife or he." 

)?e Empd'rour^ said : " Sir, for sertayn, 
)7at wald I her^ and ]'at ful fayn, 
J>arfor<?, maist^r, I ]>e pray, 

J>at ilk tale to me fou say, 3230 

Of fat erl ])at ])0u of talde; 
And, sir," he said, " ])0u mai be balde 
J>at ))is day sal my son noght dy." 
J>e mayst^r sayd: "Sir, gramercy." 

rStory XIV. "I 
L Inclusa. J 

l^e Fourtend [Tale] Said Maist^r Maxenciaj. [43 a] 

"Lord," said \e. maist^r, " ])is es no ly. 3235 

In ))e kingdom of Hungery 
Wond a nobil knyght whylom, 
A rightwis man and whise of dome. 
He dremyd Jms opon a nyght, 

]?at he lufed a lady bryght, 3240 

Bot he ne wist in what contre 

3215 R said.- — 3217 R wife, suld, IV he for be. — 3218 R myghi. — 3219^ 
said. — 3220 R wife, will. — 3222 R scho, dede. — 3223 R respyte. — 3224 R sail, 
quyte. — 3225 R sail, J>i self. — 3226 ff' haue. — 3227^ Emp^rour, sertaine. — 
3228 R full fayne. — 3229 R })arfor. — 3231 R Erell, tald. — 3232 A' may, bald. 
— 3233 7? sail. — 3234 A' \>e illegible, maist^r said. — Heading W om.\ AfS. om. 
Tale; MS., R xiiii. — 3236 R kyngdom, hungry. — 3237 R noble, whilome, W 
knight. — 3238 A' ryghtwisman, wise. — 3239 R dFemed. 



THE SEVEN SAGES III 

)7at ])e lady myght funden be. 

Him thoght he knew hir wele bi kinde, 

Ajid wele he hopid he sold hir finde. 

)7at same time dremyd pat ladi bright, 3245 

Afid thoght ])at sho sold luf a knight ; 

Bot sho wist noght of what land, 

Ne in whate stede he was dweland, 

Ne his name knew sho nathing ; 

)?arfor(? made sho grete murny//g. 3250 

Opon J)e morn, pe stori sayse, 

J7e knight toke horses a?id hernays 

And went to seke )'at lady bright 

J>at him dremyd of pat nyght. 

J>at iornay vnto him was hard, 3255 

For he wist noght whederward 

JJat he sold tak pe redy way ; 

JJarfor^ he drowped night and day. 

So he traueld monethes thre. 

And no signe of hyr kowth he se ; 3260 

Bot wele in hert he hoped ay 

J>at he sold hir se sum day. 

"So fer ])e knyght his way had nome« 
JJat into Hungeri es he cumen. 

J>ar^ he findes a fair^ castele, 3265 

Bi pe se-syde, wroght ful wele ; 
JJarin stode a towr^? ful hee ; 
Fairer saw he neuer with ee. 
An erl wond in ])at castele 

]?at aght pe lordship ilka dele. 3270 

With him he had a worthly wife, 

3242 ?F might, R fonden. — 3243 A" be kynde. — 3244 R hoped, suld, fynde. — 
3245 R tyme dremed, lady bryght. — ^3246 R scho suld, knyght. — 3247 R scho. 
— 3248 R what, dwelland. — 3249 W^she, R scho na thing. — 3250 R J^arfor, scho 
gret. — 3251 R story says. — 3252 R knyght, harnays. — 3253 R bryght. — 3254 A' 
dremed. — 3255 i? iurnay. — 3256 R whider ward. — 3257 A" suld. — 3258 R J^arfor, 
nyght. — 3259 R trauaild. — 3260 R hir couth. — 3262 A suld, som. — 3264 A' 
hungry, comen, IV otn. es. — 3265 R fyndes, fair. — 3266 A' full. — 3267 R I'are in, 
toure full heghe. — 3268 A egh. — 3269 A' Ane Erell. — 3270 Alordschip. — 3271 
A' worthi wyfe. 



112 THE SEVEN SAGES 

J>e fairest lady ]'at had lyfe. 

]7e erl was ieluse of ))at lady ; 

He sperid hir in pe tour<? for) i. 

Sho might noght out by day ne night, 3275 

To speke with swier ne with knight. 

In )iat land was wer^ ful Strang, 

Of kinges and lordes, )'at lasted lang. 

J>ari? come ridand ]'at nobil knight 

]?at so had soght ) e lady bright ; [43 b] 32S0 

He luked vp vnto pe touri^, 

Afid saw ])e lady, white so flowri^, 

Lig in a window barred with stele. 

J>an in his hert he wist ful wele 

J>at pis lady was pe same 32S5 

p>at he had so dremyd of at hame. 

He luked vp vnto pe tour^, 

And merily sang he of amowr^. 

" And when sho herd him so bigyn, 
Vnnethes might pat ladi blyn 3290 

J7at sho ne had cald him hir vnto ; 
Bot for hir lord sho durst noght do. 
He sat biside vnder a tre. 
At pe ches, a knyght atid he. 

pis knyght p^rcayued pe erl pac^. 3295 

Vnto pe lady he mened na mar^ ; 
Bot til pe erl he rides ful right, 
And of his palfray down he lyght. 
On his kne sone he him set, 

And pe erl ful faire he gret ; 3300 

'Sir Erl,' he said, 'I am a knight, 



3272 R bare instead of had. — 3273 R Erell. — 3274 R sperd. — 3275 R Scho 
myght, bi, IV he. — 3276 R squyer, knyght. — 3277 i? full. — 3278 i? kynges. - — 
3279 R rydeand, noble knyght. — 3280 R bryght. — 3282 R whyte, floure. — 3283 
H^ Ligge, R Lyg, wyndow. — 3284 R full. — 32S6 R dremed. — 3288 R amoure. — 
3289 R scho. — 3290 ^ myght, R, IV lady. — 3291 R scho. — 3292 R scho. — 3293 
W^ gat, R satt be syde. — 3294 R chesse. — 3295 R p^rsayued, Erell. — 3296 R 
no. — 3297 R tyW, Erell rydes full ryght. — 3298 R doune. — 3299 R knese, sett. 
— 3300 R Erell full fayr, grett. — 3301 R Erell, knyght. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 



113 



Out of my cuntre cuwen for fight. 

J?eder ogayn dar I noght gane, 

For a knight ]'a.re haue I slane. 

}?arfori?, sir, if ])i willes be, 3305 

J7us am I cumen to dwel with ])e. 

My famen er ful steren afid stout ; 

JJai haue destroyed my landes obout.' 

" J7e erl said : ' So mot I ))e. 
Right so fares my famen with me; 3310 

So ])at I haue no socour<? 
Bot ])is castel and pis tour^?. 
J>arfor^, sir, ]70u ert welkuw her^; 
Of swilk a man haue I mystery ; 
And if pou wil me help trewly, 3315 

I sal ])e gif grete mede forthy.' 
*gis, sir,' he sayd, 'at my power, 
Ay whils I my armes ber^.' 
With ]>e erl ])us dwels pe knight, 
Al for luf of ])e lady bryght. 3320 

par was na knight jwt bar(? shelde 
J>at might so wele his wapen welde. 
Thorgh strenkith of hand and Codes grace 
He ouercome al pe erles fase. 

pe erl him lufed and honord pan 3325 

Mari? pan any oper man; 

He made hym steward of al his land, [43 c] 
And bad pe men bow til hys hand. 

" Sone eft^r pat, opon a day, 
pe knyght allane went him to play, 3330 

Vnder pe tourf whar^ pe lady was; 
JJar^ he made him grete solace. 

3302 /? centre comen, fyght. — 3303 -A" Jnder o gayne. — 3304 A' knyght. — 
3305 J? J^arfor. — 3306 J? comen, dwell. — 3307 A" Mi, full. — 3308 /? distroyd. — 
3309 /^ Erell. — 3312 /? castell. — 3313 i? J^arfor, welcom. — 3315 /? will. — 3316 /^ 
sail, gyf gret, for thi. — 3317 /? Yhis, said, powere. — 3319 J? Erell, dwelles, 
knyght. — 3320 J? All. — 3321 J? )>are, no knyght, scheld. — 3322 /^ myght, weld. 

— 3323 Jv thurgh. — 3324 A' all, Erell. — 3325 A' Erell, hono?<rde, ^ honourd. 

— 3327 IV, A' him, A' all. — 3328 A' till his. — 3332 W There, /? gret. 



114 "THE SEVEN SAGES 

J>e lady in a wyndow lay, 

A?td saw ]'e knyght allane hi;;/ play ; 

A letter sone sho kest hym tyll, 3335 

Wharby he might wit al hir will. 

J>e knight toke vp )ie parchemyne, 

And red ]'e Franche ful fayr<? and fyne ; 

And alsone als he red it had, 

Was he neuer in hert so glad. 3340 

By ]>at letter \q knyght wele kend 

]?at his t;-rt;uayl was cuwen till end. 

Ful sar^ him langed to hyr at ga, 

Pr^uely withowten ma ; 

And wele he saw )'at, by na gyn, 3345 

Allane to hir myght he noght wyn. 

J>ar was bot a dur and a way ; 

And ])arof bar^ ])e erl ])e kay. 

" So on a day, with mylde worde, 
J>e knyght spekes vnto hys lord, 3350 

And said : ' Sir, of ))i gude grace, 
I pray j)e to gif me a place 
Bifor^ ]ns towr;^', ]'at I may big 
A litel place in for to lig, 

And ]'at I mai my wony;/g haue 3355 

At myne ese if ;^e vowchesaue.' 
'pQ. erl answerd him ful sone : 
' Sir, ])i wil sal al be done ; 
Big ])e a hows at ]'i lykyng.' 

J>e knight him thanked of \at thing. 3360 

J>e knight gat masons many ane, 
And gert ]'am hew ful fair<? fre-stane ; 
A nobil hows ]'ar^ gert he make 

3335 ^ scho, ^, ^ him. — 3336 /F Wherby, 7? Whareby, myght witt all. — 
3337 K knyght. — 3338 R full. — 3339 R als sone. — 3341 ^ Be, kende. — 3342 R 
trauaile, comen tyll eiide. — 3343 R ffull, till hir. — 3344 ^ Priuely, A^ viiik outen. 
— 3345 ^ bi. — 3348 R Erell. — 3349 R myld word. — 3350 R his. — 3351 i? gud. — 
3352 ^ gyf- — 3353 ^ Bi for, toure, byg. — 3354 R lytell, lyg. — 3355 ^ at instead 
of \>2ii, IV, R may. — 3356 R yhe vouche saue. — 3357 R Erell, full. — 3358 R will 
sail all. — 3359 R Byg. — 3361 ^F, A' knyght. — 3362 ^Fgrat, RfaW. — 3363 A" noble. 



THE SEVEN SAGES II5 

Ful sone for ]>e lady sake. 

When it was wroght als it sold be, 3365 

Bath of stane an^il als of tre, 

)?an thoght he euer by whatkyn gin 

]?at he moght to ]>e lady win. 

" Biside ]>ar(f, in anoj'er town, 
Was \>3.re cuwen a new masown 3370 

]7at soght had fra fer cuntre ; 
Sotiler man might none be. 
p>e knyght vnto pat mason sent ; 
His messang^rs wigh[t]ly war went. [43 d] 
JJai broght him to ])e knyght in hy ; 3375 

He hailsed him ful curtaysly. 
]>e knyght said : ' Mai I traist on ])e. 
For to tel my preuete 
]7at I haue aghteld for to do ? ' 
]7e mason swarf grete athes him to 3380 

}7at he sold whatsom he wolde, 
Afid neuer tel man on pis molde. 

" He said : 'In ]ns tourc, I tel pe, 
Wons a lady pat lufes me ; 

Afid I luf hir wele at my might; 33^5 

Bot I may, nowper day ne night, 
Til hir win ne with hir speke. 
'pa.riore a hole bihoues pe breke 
In pis towre ful preuely, 

]7at no man wit bot pou and I ; 339° 

f»at I may cum in prmete 
Vnto pe lady and sho to me.' 
* Sertes, sir,' said pe mason sone, 
'Als pou has said, it sal be done.' 

3364 J? ff uU. — 3365 /? suld. — 3367 J^ be, gyn. — 3368 /? wyn. — 3369 /? Be syde, 
ane other toune. — 3370 A' comen, masoune. — 3371 ^ contre. — 3372 /? myght. 

— 3373 /^ masoune. — 3374 ^S- wighly. — 3375 ^ That. — 3376 J? full curtaisly. 

— 3377 W knight, W, R May, W in, R trayst. — 3378 R tell.— 3380 R gret.— 
3381 i^suld, R, W insert do after sold, 7? wold. — 3382 i? tell, mold. — 3383 R 
tell. — 3385 R myght. — 3386 R nouther, nyght. — 3387 R Till, wyn. — 3388 A' 
harfor. — 3389 R toure full. — 3390 R witt. — 3391 R com, W priuete. — 3392 
R scho. — 3394 A sail. 



Il6 THE SEVEN SAGES 

Hastily he takes hys tole, 3395 

And in ]'e tour^ he made a hole, 

]?at I'e knight might cuw j^e ladi vntill, 

Night a/id day, at ])air^ owyn will. 

When ]'e lady wist of ]ns, 

Hir thoght hir hert was ful of blis. 3400 

J>e knight quit wele )'e seruise 

Of ]>e. mason for his quayntyse : 

He slogh him sone, j^at ilk day, 

For fered ])at he sold oght say. 

'■'■And efterward, ful sone onane, 3405 

Into ]'e tourif pe knight gan gane ; 
Thurgh pe hole gan he pas, 
Til he come whar^ pe lady was. 
Bitwene pam was grete ioy and blis ; 
In armes ful curtaysly pai kys. 3410 

Wele sho wist it was ])at knyght 
]?at sho had dremyd of a nyght. 
Sho said: 'Sir, ])ou ert welkuw her^".' 
He said: 'Gramercy, lady dere.' 
To hir he talde of his drenieing, 3415 

And sho him talde of ])e same thing. 
And when ])ai wist it was sertayn, 
Ayther of oper was ful fayn. 
Sho lete him wirk far^ al his will ; 
And sejien he said ]5e lady vntyll : 3420 

'Dame, I dar no lenger byde, [44a] 
For herein may J'ou me noght hide. 
Ajid parforif, dame, haue now goday ; 
I sal cnm ogayn when I may.' 

3395 R his. — 3397 R knyght myght com, vn tyll, W lady. — 3398 W^ thair, 
R l^air awen. — 3400 R full, blys. — 3401 W, R knyght, R quyt, seruyse. — 3402 R 
masoune, W^quayntise. — 3404 fFForfered, R ferd, suld. — 3405 W, R aftifrward, 
R full. — 3406 R knyght. — 3408 R Till. — 3409-13 R illegible for first letter of 
these lines. — 3409 R blys. — 3410 R full curtasly. — 3411 R scho. — 3412 R scho, 
dremed. — 3413 R Scho, welcom. — 3415 R tald, dremeyng. — 3416 R scho, tald. 
— 3417 R sertaine. — 3418 R full fayne. — 3419 R Scho, all, ^ thar. — 3420 R 
sithen. — 3421 R lengar. — 3422 R hyde. — 3423 R liavfor, gud day. — 3424 R sail 
com ogayne. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 1 17 

"J7e lady, at ]>air^ dep^-rtyng, 3425 

Gaf ]>e knight a gude gold ri//g, 
Atid said : ' Sir, I pray to pe. 
When ])ou sese ]'is, thi«ke on me.' 
At ]'e lady pe ryng he tase. 

And graythly til ])e hole he gase. 3430 

J^e ring he put his fyng^r on. 
And doun ogayn he hied him sone, 
Thurgh ]'e hole was made of stane : 
A meri man ])e knight was ane. 
pe knyght went vnto \e hall, 3435 

Vnto ]'e erl and his menje all ; 
J>e erl gert him sit ful ner*?, 
And to hym made he meri cher^. 
Als I'ai spak of diuers thing, 

JJe erl saw his whiues ring 3440 

Opon ]'e knyghtes iyuger hzxe ; 
He had wonder how it was par^. 
He wist wele \^.r was none slike, 
Ne pat none might be made so like. 
And euer he thinkes in hert styll 3445 

How ani man might come her till. 
Styl he held al in his thoght ; 
Vnto ])e knyght he sayd right noght. 
Bot vp he rase bilyue onane ; 

Vnto his whife he thoght to gane, 3450 

For to wit whar^ hir ring was. 
J>e knight p^rzayued al fe case. 
He hies als fast als he may 
Tite vntil hys prd-ue way. 

3425 R hair. — 3426 R knyght, gud, ryng. — 3428 R think. — 34-29 W hase. — 
3430 R gr(zythely till. — 3431 R ryng, putt, one. — 3432 R doune ogayne, hyed. — 
3434 R mery, knyght. — 3435 ^V into. — 3436 R Erell, meneyhe. — 3437 ■'^ Erell, 
sytt full. — 3438 R him, mery. — 3439 ^ diu^rse. — 3440 R Erell, wyues ryng. — 
3443 R \>a.xe, slyke. — 3444 R myght, lyke. — 3446 R any, myght com, tyll. — 
— 3447 R Styll, all. — 3448 R said ryght. — 3449 J? rayse be lyue. — 3450 R wife, 
^f^whyfe. — 3451 R witt, ryng. — 3452 R knyght, p^rsayued all. — 3454 R vn tyll 
his, W'pxiue. 



Il8 THE SEVEN SAGES 

"J>e erl hies to \>e lady fre ; 3455 

Bot pe knyght come lang or he. 
Vnto I'e lady ]>e ring he cast, 
And doun ogayn he hies him fast. 
J'e lady has ]'e ring up hent ; 

Sho wist ful wele pan how it went. 3460 

Sho did it in hir purs in horde ; 
And sone Yareiter come hir lorde. 
And with gude cher<? he gan hir glade, 
And asked hyr what cher6' sho made. 
Sho said sho myght haue no solace, 3465 

So was sho pr^sond in pat place, 
Fra pe sight of alkins men : 
' How may I any kuwforth ken ? ' [44 b] 
'Dame,' said pe erl ful sone, 

* For grete der<fnes es yt done, 3470 

And for I wil nane change pi thoght.' 
J>e lady said : ' Sir, thinkes it noght ; 
J>ar es no knight in no cuntre 
J>at might change my luf ira pe. 
And sen je wil pat it be pus, 3475 

At jowr^ lyking habide me bus ; 
For oper cuwforth kepe I nane 
Bot of God and of jow allane.' 

"JJe erl thoght jit on oper thing. 
'Dame,' he said, 'whar<? es pi ring 3480 

J>at I pe gaf of gold ful fyne ? 
Lat me se it, leman myne.' 
J>e lady answerd hym vnto : 
'Sir, what sal je parwith do? 



3455 /? Erell hyes. — 3457 /? ryng, kast. — 3458 A" doune, hyes. — 3459 -^ 
ryng. — 3460 /? Scho, full. — 3461 J? Scho. — 3462 /? h>are efter. — 3463 /? gud. — 
3464 J? hir, scho. — 3465 /? Scho, scho. — 3466 ^ scho, fFprisond. — 3467 ./? ffro, 
alkyns. — 3468 7? comforth. — 3469 /^ Erell full. — 3470 j^ gret, it. — 3471 /? will, 
chaunge. — 3473 -^> W^Thare, /? knyght, contre. — 3474 ^ myght chaunge, JVior. 

— 3475 ^ yhe will. — 3476 J? yhour lykyng abyde. — 3477 ^ comforth. — 3478 
/^ yhow. — 3479 ^ yhit. — 3480 J? ryng. — 3481 ^gaue, A' full. — 3482 A^ lewman. 

— 3484 /? sail yhe >are wttA. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 



119 



Wene je pat it be oway 3485 

For I werd" it noght ilk day ? 

Nai, sir, dredes 50W neuer a dele, 

For I sal jeme it wonder wele.' 

'Dame,' he sayd, 'for luf of me, 

A sight ]jarof ]>a.t I might se ; 3490 

Am/, sertes, I ask it for none ill.' 

Sho said : * Sir, gladly at jowr^ will.' 

Out of hir purs pe ring sho toke; 

J?e lord gan graythly on hir loke. 

' Lo ! sir,' sho said, 'her^ is my ri«g.' 3495 

])e erl had meruail of ])is thing, 

pat it was like, by syght, 

}7e ring j^at he saw of his knight. 

Bot wele he hopid amf weterly, 

]?at nane might win to )'e lady ; 3500 

Ne ])at hir ring was noght hir ira, 

Bot j'at l^ai had bene like, ];ai twa. 

" He was wele solast of )'at sight, 
Afid ]'ar^ he dwelled al J'at night. 
J>e lady bi hirself oft smyled, 3505 

Afid thoght J'at he was wele bigild. 
Opon J'e morn J'e knyght vp rase, 
A/id to J'e kirk graythly he gase, 
Goddes werkes J'ar<? for to wirk. 
SeJ'en com J'e erl vnto J'e kyrk ; 3510 

A mes ful sone J'an gert he sing, 
In honowri? of our^ heuyn kyng. 
J'e erl sent J'an hastily, 
F.iter ]'e knyght of Hungery. 



34S5 J? yhe. — 3486 /^ ilk a day. — 3487 J? Nay, dred yhow. — 3488 /? sail 
yheme. — 3489 /? said. — 3490 /? syght J^are of, myght. — 3492 /? Scho, yhour. — 
3493 Jv ryng scho. — 3494 -^ graythely, luke. — 3495 J^ scho, es, ryng. — 3497 ^ 
so lyke be, ?F sight. — 3498 J? ryng, on, knyght, ^this. — 3499 ^ hoped, witerly. 
— 3500 A' myght wyn. — 3501 /? ryng.— 3502 A' at, lyke. — 3503 /? syght. — 3504 
A" dweld all, nyght. — 3505 A' be, smyld. — 3506 A' begyld. — 3508 /^ kyrk. — 
3509 /? Godes. — 3510 A" Sithen come. — 3511 A' mess full, syng. — 3512 A' 
honoure, heuen. — 3513 A^ Erell. 



120 THE SEVEN SAGES 

pe knyght come sone }'e erl vntill. [44 c] 3515 

J>e erl said : ' Sir, if J'Ou will, 
]7ou sal wend to wod with me. 
At hunt and solace for to se.' 

" J?e knyght answerd wordes he;/de : 
' Sir, to wod may I noght wende ; 3520 

For me es cuwen new tij'and, 
J>at makes me ful wele lykand, 
Fra my cuntre withowten lese, — 
J?at my frendes haues made mi pese 
For ]'at knight fat I haue slayn ; 3525 

And of ))ir tifandes am I fayn. 
And, sir, pis tij'andes es me broght 
Bi my leman, ]>at has me soght 
Heder out of myne awin cuntre. 
p2iviore, sir, if jowr^? wil be, 3530 

)?is day I pray jow with me ete, 
And se my leman at )'e mete, 
And for to make cuwforth hir till.' 
f>e erl said: 'Gladly I will 

Do al pe cowforth pat I can, 3535 

Bath to pe and ]n leman ; 
Whenso pou will, send eiter me, 
And smer^tly sal I cum to ])e.' 

" J?an went pe erl to his solace, 
Vnto pe wod to mak his chace. 3540 

And pe knight went sone onane. 
And ordand mete and drink gud wane. 
His hows he dight on gude aray ; 
And smertly pan he toke pe way 
Vnto pe lady fairt' and bright, 3545 

3515 IV com, /^ vn tyll. — 3516 ^F Sire. — 3517 J? sail wende. — 3518 fV be. 
— 3521 /? comen, tythand. — 3522 J? full. — 3523 /? ffro, contre -wit/i outen. — 
3524 /? At, has, my. — 3525 /? knyght, slayne. — 3526 IV, R tythandes, R fayne. — 
3527 R hes, W, R tythandes. — 3528 R He, lewman. — 3529 R Hyder, awen contre, 
^owt. — 3530 R harfor, yhour will. — 3531 R yhow, ette. — 3532 R lewman. — 
3533 R mak comforth, tyll. — 3535 R all, kan, W^cumforth.- — 3538 IV, /'smertly, 
R sail, com. — 3541 R knyght. — 3542 R ordaind, drynk. — 3543 R dyght, gud. — 
3545 R fair, bryght. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 121 

And gert f'at sho war gayly dyght, 

In gold garmentes, richely wroght, 

A/id talde hir al how he has thoght 

J>at ilk day sho and hir lord 

Sold bath togeder et of a bord ; 3550 

A?id how hir lord sold vnderstand 

J>at sho war cu7«en out of fer land. 

Down he broght hir til his hows, 

Hamely als sho war his spows. 

Bot hir garmentes war al new, 3555 

J>at no man in ])at cuntre knew. 

Opon hir fingers gert he done 

Gold ringes ful many one. 

Hir hed was gayly dubed and dyght 

With gerlands al of gold ful bright. 3560 

So out of kenyng he hir broght 

JJat hir lord ])an knew hir noght. [44 d] 

" Fra hunting come ]'e erl in hi; 
J>e knyght him keped ful curtaisly. 
And til his hows he led him ]>an 3565 

For to ett with his leman. 
Redy was ordaynd and dyght 
Mete afid drink for mani a knight. 
Vnto J»e bord pe erl es set, 

And his whif, with him to et. 3570 

f>e knight said : ' f>is es my leman ; 
Makes hir comforth if je can.' 
f>e erl bad sho sold be blith, 
And he biheld hir mony a syth ; 
And wonder in his hert had he 3575 

3546 H scho. — 3547 R rychely. — 3548 R tald, all. — 3549 R scho. — 3550 R 
Suld, to gyder ett. — 3551 R suld. — 3552 R scho, comen. — 3553 J^ Doune, till. — 
3554 R scho. — 35-55 R all. — 3556 R contre. — 3557 R fyng^rs. — 3558 R rynges 
full. — 3559 R heued, dubbed, dight. — 3560 R garlandes all, full bryght. — 3563 
R huntyng, Erell, hy. — 3564 R full, W curtaysly. — 3565 R till. — 3566 R lewman. 

— 3567 R ordaind. — 3568 7? drynk, many, knyght. — 3569 R sett. — 3570 R wyf, 
ett. — 3571 i? knyght, lew^man. — 3572 R yhe kan. — 3573 R scho suld, blythe. 

— 3574 R be held, many, sythe. 



122 THE SEVEN SAGES 

How jjat it so myght be, 

JJat any lady in )ns life 

Might be so like his owin wyfe. 

J^e lady praied him blith to be, 

And ett gladly, par charite. 3580 

J»e erl bad hir also be glad. 

And loked on hir als he war mad; 

Bot he thoght ]'e towr^ was so Strang 

J>at par^ myght no man do h.\m wrang, 

Ne pat his whif might noght cnm doun. 35S5 

]7arfor^ trowed he no tresowne. 

He thoght : ' Oft sythes bifalles slike, 

J>at mani wemen er oper like, 

Als was ]'e ring of gold fyne 

]?at I wend wele had bene myne.' 3590 

" J?us ]'e erl left al his car^ ; 
Of pis mater he thinkes no mari?. 
}?an said pe knight on pis maner^ 
Vnto pe erl: 'Sir, mase gude cher<?.' 
J>e erl said : * Sir, I pe pray, 3595 

JJe sertan soth pat pou me say 
Whepin es pis fair^ lady 
J>at pou has set at met me by ? ' 
JJe knight said : ' Sir, bi my lewte, 
Sho es cu;«en ira myne awyn cuntre ; 3600 

Sho es my leman pat has me soght, 
And new tithandes sho haues me broght ; 
Mi pese es made foreuermar.? 
For pe knight pat I slogh par^, 
So pat I may wend hardily 3605 



3577 R lyfe. — 3578 R lyke, awen. — 3579 W, i? prayed, R blyth. — 3580 Welt, 
i? charyte. — 3581 R zXs. — 3583 ^ toure. — 3585. '3587, 3588 R first letter of the 
line obliterated. — 3585 R wyfe . . . ht, com doune. — • 3586 R J>ar for, tresoune. — 
3587 i^sithes, slyke. — 3588 R many, lyke. —3589 R ryng. — 3591 i? all.— 3593 
R knyght. — 3594 R gud. — 3595 W Sire. — 3596 R sertaine. — 3597 R Whethen, 
?^ Wheym, i? fayre. — 3598 R sett, mete. — 3599 i? knyght, be. — 3600 R Scho, 
comen fro, f^from, R awen contre. — 3601 R Askes instead of Sho es, R lewman. 
— 3602 W, R tythandes, R scho, boght. — 3604 R knyght. 



THE SEVEN SAGES I23 

Hame ogayn my pese to cri ; 

And \-3sioxe wil I with hir wende, 

For to speke with ilka frende.' 

'Sir, sekerly,' said pe erl pan, [45 a] 

' Me think ]>ou has a fayr^ leman.' 3610 

" Whan ]>ai had etyn and dronken inoghe, 
J>ai toke vp mete, and clathes drogh. 
When ])e erl liked to gane, 
He toke leue at pe knyghtes lema«. 
And hastily when he was went, 3615 

]7e knight and ])e lady gent 
Sone did of J^e riche aray 
J>at fai had done on ])at day ; 
Hir awyn robe sone did J)ai on, 

Afid dighted hir als sho was won. 3620 

And \zx\ sho toke pe preue sty 
Into J)e tour^ ful hastily. 
pe knight gan playnly with hir pas 
Vntil sho in hir chamber was. 

And vnnethes was \q. knyght went out 3625 

When \Q. erl was gane obowt ; 
Vnto fe tour<? he takes \q. way 
Als hastily als euer he may ; 
J>ar^ he findes his lady, 
Keped him ful curtaysely. 3630 

" ]?an was fe erl in hert ful glad 
When he wist fat he hir had. 
Him thoght jit sho was like fully 
To \t. lady }jat sat him by. 

JJari? fe erl dwelled al nyght, 3635 

And laiked him with his lady bright. 

3606 R o gayne, cry. — 3607 R harfor will, wend. — 3608 R frend. — 3609 R 
sikerly. — 3610 i?fairlewman. — 361 1 ^eten,inoughe, /? When. — 3612 R droghe. 
— 3613 J? lyked. — 3614 R lewmane. — 3616 7? knyght. — 3617 ^ ryche. — 3619 
R awen. — 3620 R dyghted, scho. — 3621 R scho, W priue. — 3622 R full. — 
3623 R knyght. — 3624 R Vn lill scho, chaumbre. — 36267? o bout. — 3629 j? 
fyndes. — 3630 R full curtaisly. — 3631 R full. — 3632 W Whan. — 3633 R yhit 
scho, lyke. - — 3634 R satt. — 3635 R all. — 3636 R layked, bryght. 



124 THE SEVEN SAGES 

J>at night ]'ai wroght what pair*? wils war<f ; 

And on pat wise )>ai met na mar^. 

Herkens now, how it bifell : 

On pis maner stode pat castell, 3640 

J>at pe se ran fast byside ; 

Many gode shippes gan par^ bide. 

Whils pe erl of grete honowr^ 

Lay with pe lady in l)e towr^, 

J>e knight ordand a ship of sail, 3645 

And gert berif peder gude vetaille ; 

Al his gode peder gert he ber^, 

Gold and siluer arid oper ger<?. 

" On pe morn pe erl forth gase, 
And left his lady in pat place, 3650 

Vntil pe kirk pan went he sone 
And herd his mes als he was wone ; 
And when he to ]'e kirk was gane, 
J>e knyght went to pe towr^ onane, 
And down he broght pe fayr^ lady 3655 

Into his hows ful pr^uely. [45 b] 
And of pai toke pe clathes sone 
J>at pe lady had hir on ; 
J>ai dight hir in pe garment^j- gay 
J>at sho had on pat oper day ; 3660 

With gerlandes and with glet^rand thing 
Was sho made out of knawyng. 

"When al was done als it sold be, 
Vnto pe erl, his lord, went he. 

' Sir,' he sayd, ' I wald pe pray 3665 

Of a ded pis ilk day : 
J^at pou wil gif me with pi hand 

3637 R \>2cvc wyls. — 3638 R wyse, mett no. — 3640 R manure. — 3641 R 
bi syde. — 3642 R gud schippes, byde. — 3643 R gret honoure. — 3644 R toure. — 
3645 R knyght ordaind, schipp, sayle. — 3646 R hider gud vetaile. — 3647 R All, 
gud Hder. — 3648 R syluer. — 3650 ^ plase. — 3651 R vn tyll, kyrk. — 3652 R 
mess. — 3653 R kyrk. — 3654 R toure. — 3655 R doune, fair. — 3656 R full, W 
priuely. — 3658 R o pone. — 3659 R dyght. — 3660 R scho. — 3661 R garlandes. — 
3662 R scho. — 3663 R all, suld. — 3666 R thing instead of ded. — 3667 R will gyf . 



THE SEVEN SAGES 125 

My leman or I pas ])i lond, 

J?at I mai wed hir to my whife ; 

For with hir wil I lede my lyfe.' 3670 

He sayd he thoght to wed hir pan 

J?at had byfor^ ben his leman, 

For luf of God and als for drede, 

And for he sold pe better spede. 

]?e erl said: ' )'at es gude scill, 3675 

And als ])ou sais, syr, do I will.' 

" Sone )>e erl cals knightes twa, 
And bad pam sone ])at |'ai sold ga 
And feche ))e lady vnto pe kirk. 
)?ai war redy his wil to wirk; 3680 

To kirk pai led ]>at fair^ lady. 
A pr^ste was reuist hastily. 
J>e erl come with meri cher^, 
Omang al pat folk in fer^. 

His owin lady he toke byliue 3685 

And gaf pe knyght vntil his wiue ; 
J>e prest pam weddes swith sone. 
And als tite als pe mes was done, 
J>an was par<? made grete menestriflsy ; 
Aftd ])e knight and his lady 3690 

Went pam forth with grete solas 
To pe ship whar^ his godes in was. 
f>e erl went with pam partill ; 
)?e knight went yn with ful gude will. 

" J>e lady stode still on pe sand ; 3^95 

fJe erl toke hir by pe hand, 
And bad pe knyght sold hir take, 
Euermar<? to be his make, 
f'ar*? pe knyght toke pe lady, 

And said to pe erl : ' Sir, gramercy 3700 

Of pis and of al oper grace.' 



3668 R Mi lewman, pass. — 3669 R may, wyfe. — 3670 R will. — 367 1 R said. — 
3672 R be fore, lewman. — 3673 W lufe. — 3673 to 4022 (two folios following 
fol. i2tj) R omits. — 3677 ^knyghtes. — 3682 ^Fprieste. — 3701 W om. second oi. 



126 THE SEVEN SAGES 

J?us of ]'e erl hys leue he tase ; 

J'e wind blew, pai went j^airf? way. [45 c] 

JJus lost ]'e erl his whife for ay ; 

He gaf hir j)us ]>e knyght to wed ; 3705 

J>arfor^ ful sari life he led. 

" When ))e knight was went with ])e lady, 
]>e erl wendes hame hastily ; 
Vntil ]>e tour^ ]>e way he tase, 

To tel his lady how it was, 3710 

And how he had his knyght cu;mayd ; 
He trowed noght how he was bitraid. 
Vntil his tour^ ]ms wendes he right, 
For to speke with his lady bright. 
Into ]»e chameber gan he ga, 3715 

And loked obout, bath to and fra ; 
He saw no syght of his lady ; 
JJarforc" sone he wex sary. 
Of hir cowth he nothing her^; 

J>an he wepid with sari cher^. 3720 

Vnto himself he gan him mene 
]7at al was soth als he had sene. 
J>an wist he it was his- lady 
J>at at ]'e mete was set him by. 
To wax wise j^an he bigan ; 3725 

J>arfor^ blamed him moni a man." 

J>an pe maist^r Maxencius 
Vnto ])e Empt'rour^ said ]ms : 
" On ])is wise dose ]'ou, sir," said he, 
"When ]n whif spekes to j^e : 3730 

J>ou trowes hir tales day and nyght, 
Better ]'an )iat |)ou sese in sight. 
And, sir," he said, " pat ]ns soth be, 
Tomorn ))OU sal wele her^ and se — 
Who has ]'e wrang in al })is strife, 3735 

Wheper pi son or pi wife. 
For tomorn pi son sal speke ; 

371 1 JFconuayd. — 3725 Ifhegan. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 12/ 

J>an hope I wele ))ou wil him wreke," 

pe Emp^rowr^ sais : " Bi my swir^, 

Sir, ])at war my moste desire. 3740 

If I mai whit who has )^e right, 

It sal be venged at my might." 

J>an J)e maist^r wendes his way ; 

J>us was ]>e cliilde saued ]jat day. 

pa Empmce ])an was ful wa 3745 

]7at ]'e childe was saued swa; 
For wele sho wist hir was na bote 
Of pat mat^r mor^ to mote. 

Here Bigins p>e Fiftend Prolong. 

]:»e Emp<frour^ ))an, al }'at night, [45 d] 
In his hert he was ful lyght ; 375° 

Bot l^e Empmce had mekil sorow 
For ])e child sold speke at morow. 
J>e Emp^'z-our^ lay in gude pese ; 
Him for to p/rche wald sho noght pr^se. 
On ]'e morn pe Emp^rour^ 3755 

Went to kirk with grete honowr^, 
With many knytes of his menje. 
And al pe burias of )>at cete, . 
Burias wiues, and maidens bright, 
Wele araid and richely dyght, 3760 

To court pai come with ful gude cher^, 
fJe child speche for ]>ai wald her^. 
)?e Seuyn Maist^rs euerilkane 
Come vnto J)e court onane. 

Smertly when )>e mes was done, 3765 

J>e Emp^rour^ him hasted sone ; 
Til a fair<? place he made hiw boun. 
And bad |'e folk jiai sold syt down. 
Sone he cald )'e Maist^rs Seuyn, 

.-3738 fFwill. — 3741 /r may. — 3742 W xm. — 3748 Jrwel. — Heading W om.., 
/l/S. XV. — 3752 ^F childe. ' 



128 THE SEVEN SAGES 

And twa he gan bi names neuyn, 3770 

And bad pam feche his sone forth sone. 

His cumandment bilyue was done ; 

J?ai went to presowne with gude will, 

And broght ]'e childe his fader vntill. 

Ful klenly was he cled and dyght, 3775 

Bot he was lene and febil of myght. 

J>e childe was set in middes ]»e place, 
Right befor his fader face. 
f>e folk made mikil noys and shrill ; 
J>arfore ]'e childe jit held hiw still. 3780 

He thanked God of his gude grace 
Whils pai made pese in j'at place. 
JJan stode j^e child vp sone onane, 
Bifor^ his fader and \e folk ilkane ; 
He bowed him ful bowsumly, 3785 

And of his fader asked mercy. 
He said: "Sir, je er wrethed wrang; 
J'at sal je wit wele or I gang. 
]?e wiked wil, sir, of jowr*? wife 

Has made me al })is mekil strif; 3790 

For sho had made thurgh sorceri 
Thing fat I sold haue bene ded by. 
I saw in fe mone and st^rnes all 
How ])at' sold of me bifall : 

J>at, had I spoken with any man 3795 

To seuyn days war cuwen and gane, [46 a] 
My hert sold sone haue broken in sond^r; 
J?an had my maist^rs bene al vnder. 
And for my maist^rs ))at me jemed 
For my sake sold noght be flemed, 3800 

'pz.xioxe, sir, I held me still. 
And sofferd what men did me till." 

"Bot, fader," he said, "it fars of ])e, 
And right so haues j'ou done with me 

3771 W fech. — 3778 IV before. — 3797 ^^ asonder. — 3798 IV maysters, 
under. 



r Story XV. "I 
LVaticinium. J 



THE SEVEN SAGES 129 

Als did a gudeman, her^ bi west, 3805 

JJat his son in j^e se kest, 

For he said he sold be, by grace, 

Richer man ]'an euer he was." 

J^e Emp<?rour(? said : "So haue I sele, 

Son, ]n wordes payes me wele ; 3810 

pSLriore, son, for my benzown, 

Tel vs al now )>at resown. 

J>i maist^rs has al tald for ]>e 

Tales )'at f ul wele liked me ; 

Bot, sone, a tale of pe allane 3815 

Wil like me mare pan pai ilkane ; 

JJarfor^ ]>i tale fou tell vs till." 

He said: "Sir, gladly, at jowr^ will." 



f>e Fiftend Tale Said ]?e Childe. 

" Syr," he said, " in ])is cuntre 
Wond a man, curtays and fre; 3820 

He had a son was wise and balde. 
Of fully fiften winters aide. 
Opon a day, in somers tyde, 
J>e gudeman went by fe se-syde. 
He had a ship pat new was wroght; 3825 

He bad pe mayst^r it sold be broght 
A mile or twa opon pe se, 
And himself parin wald be. 
He toke his son, als je may her*?. 
And went to ship ]>ai bath in fer^; 3830 

f>ai war in will pam to solas. 
In an yle pat in pe se was. 

"Als pai pederward gan wende, 
Twa rauenes on pair^ shippes ende 
Cried on pam loud and shill, 3835 

And ouer pair^ ship pai houed still. 

3810 /F wel. — Heading W om., A/S. xv. — 3834 W^ravenes. — 3835 ^loude. 



I30 



THE SEVEN SAGES 



J>an said )'e fader, with hert fre : 

' Son, what may al }>is noys be, 

J?at ]nse rauens thusgat cri ? 

What euer sal it sygnyfy ? ' 3840 

"J>e child was of wit ful klene ; [46 b] 
He said : ' I wote wele what )'ai me[ne]. 
J>ir twa rauens says in j^airi? steuyw 
J>at, thurgh j^e help of God of heuy«, 
I sal be of so grete powste, 3845 

Fader, ])at ]>ou sal noght knaw me ; 
And if I wil it soffer sertayn, 
Fader, j^ou sal be ful fayn 
For to hald my kapes sleue, 

Whils I washs ; fis may je leue. 3850 

A?id mor^ jit sais )'e rauens twa : 
J»at my moder sal alswa 
Be ful fayn to hald ]>e clathe 
Whills my handes be wyped bath.' 
When })e fader herd how he sayd, 3855 

Of his wordes he was noght payd. 
And til his son pan gan he say : 
'J?e crakes sal ly, if I may. 
What, son,' he said, ' couaites )'0u 
To be richer ]>an I am now ? 3860 

Nay, series, it sal noght be swa 
Whils ])at I may ride and ga.' 
His semly son Jian hentes he. 
And kest him sone into ])e se. 

He turned j^e ship with eger mode; 3865 

]?e child flet forth in pe flode. 

" J>e fader bade pe rauens him take. 
And with his body meri make ; 
And hastly went he hame ogayne ; 
Ful wele he wend his son war slaine. 3870 

JJe child swam forth in pe se ; 
On God in heuyn ay thinkes he, 

3842 7F\vot, MS. me... — 3848 /Ffayne. — 3851 JF says. — 3854 /Fbathe.— 
3868 ^rbodi. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 131 

And specially he praied him till 

To help him if it war his will. 

And God of heuy«, of his grete grace, 3875 

Made him to riue vp in a place, 

Opon ane ile ]'ar^, in j^e se. 

Ful ioyful fan in hert was he. 

J>e childe jede vpon fe land, 

And thanked Ihesn of his sande. 3880 

In ])at land he lifed allane ; 

Four.? dales mete ete he nane. 

" He herd ])e fowles speke him till. 
And said : ' Childe, gif \q noght ill ; 
Ihesn wil J^e help in haste ; 3885 

J>i meschefe es now alpermaste.' 
JJe childe knew wele |'e fowles sang; 
He thanked God graithly omang. [46 c] 
He vnderstode al fowles language, 
Bath yn wod and als in cage. 3890 

J7ai sang him cu;«fort wonder wele, 
For he wist )iair^ meni«g ilk dele. 

")7e fift day pan come sayland 
A fissher bote biside fe land. 

Of ]'at sight ful fayn was he, 3895 

And fast he hies him to ))e se. 
' Help me, sir,' J^us gan he cri, 
' For Ih^^u luf and milde Mari.' 
J>e fissher saw fe childe allane, 

And vnto him he rowed onane. 3900 

Atid sone when he come to ]'e childe. 
He spak to him with wordes milde : 
' Frely childe, what dose ])Ou her^ ? ' 
]?an said fe childe with simpil cher<; : 
' Sir, help pat I war in ))i bate, 3905 

And I sal tel pe al my state.' 
Intil his bate he gan him bring, 
And pan he talde him his asking : 

3877 W an. — 3S80 W Jesu, sand. — 3882 W Four. — 3S85 IV Jesu. — 3886 
fT mischefe. — 3890 ^f^ Bathe. — 3898 ff' Jesu. — 3899 il/.S. ffissher. 



132 THE SEVEN SAGES 

How his fader kest him in ))e se 

For he said J^at he sold be 3910 

Gretter of myght, by Goddes grace, 

And richer J^an his fader was ; 

And how he swam into fat yle, 

Al he talde him in \■^\. while. 

"J>e fissher thoght of hym pete. 3915 

* Childe,' he said, ' I sal bring ]'e 
Vntil a kastel her^ nerehand, 
Vnto fe kinges steward of ]ns land. 
J>ar^ sal pou play a?id meri make.' 
J>e childe said : ' For Ih^i'u sake, 3920 

Bring me, if it be )'i will, 
J)ar^ I may ette and drink my fill.' 
Sone J'ai come to ]>e castele 
Whar^ f>e fissher was knawen wele. 
He said \^ childe, I vnderstand, 3925 

Vntil pe steward of J>at land. 
J>e steward was of hym f ul fayn ; 
He saw neuer fairer for sertayne : 
He was ful cu;«ly on to call, 

Fair^ and curtays euer with all. 3930 

J^e childe wex and wele gan thryue ; 
JJe steward lufed hym als his lyue. 

" In fat land fan was a king 
J>at had grete thoght a7id made morny«g 
For thre rauens fat cried on him ay ; [46 d] 3935 
In kirk, in hall, in ilka way, 
Whar(?so he sold ryde or gane, 
J>a rauens cried euer onane — 
Opon fe king ay gan fai cry. 

His folk farof had grete ferly; 3940 

And al fe men of ilk cuntre 
Had grete selkuth fat sight to se. 
J>e king in no place [might] haue pese. 
For of f airif noys wald fai neuer sese ; 

3914 ^Fwhyle. — 3915 MS. ffissher. — 3920 ^Jesu. — 3924 f^ Where. — 3928 
W^fayrer. — 3930 W^Fayre. — 3943 MS. om. might. — 3944 /Fthair noyse. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 



133 



NowJ'er for bow ne for sling 3945 

No man might ]>am oway bring. 

" pe king wald fayn oway ]>am wyn, 
Bot he wist noght how to bygyn. 
Eft^r his barnage has he sent, 

And gert ordayn a grete paHement, 3950 

For to wit encheson why 
J»at ])e rauens made slike cri ; 
For wele he trowed pam al omell 
J>at som wise man sold him tell. 
When his barons wist his will, 3955 

Hastily ]'ai come him till ; 
Al fe lordes on ilka syde 
Come vnto J^e court ])at tide. 
pe steward l>at had j^e childe in keping, 
Said he wald wend vnto j^e king, 3960 

If he myght her^ of any man 
J>at ))e king wele tell can 
Why thre rauens opon him cry. 
And what ]>at it might signyfy. 

* Sir,' said fe child, ' par charite, 3965 

Wiltou lat me wend with pe ? ' 
pe steward said : ' Sen fou wil swa, 
Gladly saltou with me ga. 
pe kinges wil son saltow her^, 
And sum gude ]'ar^ may ]70u ler^.' 3970 

"}?e steward wendes, ]>e childe alswa, 
And with fam oj^er many ma. 
Vnto )'e kourt ]'an cwnen war^, 
Erles, barons, both les and ma.ve. 
pe sertayn day bifor^ was set; 3975 

JJarfor ])e lordes, withowten let, 
Come vnto pat sertayn day. 
And pan pe king gert sone puruay 
Al pe lordes into a hall, 
And set himself omang pam all. 3980 

3958 ^Com, courte. — 3979 IV AM. 



134 THE SEVEN SAGES 

* Sirs,' he sayd, ' je sal sit downe, 

And takes entent to my resowne.' [47 a] 

" J>an stode he vp omanges J^am all, 
On \e. heghest place in \e hall. 

' Lordinges,' he said, ' lokes omang jow 3985 

If any man can tel me now 
Of thre rauens ]>at cryes on me, 
In what stede so pat I be. 
Wha can me tel, so mot I thriue, 
My doghter sal he haue to wiue, 3990 

And half my kingdom ilka dele, 
J>at he sal hald him paid ful wele.' 
When ])e king had said his will, 
Al fe lordes sat stane-still ; 

Of al J'e wise men fat J^ar war^, 3995 

Nane kowth gif him graith answar<?. 
J>e steward childe pan was wele paid, 
When he herd how \e. kyng had said ; 
In his hert he thinkes wele 

JJat he kowth tel him ilka dele. 4000 

Til his lord spekes he pr^uely, 
And sais : ' f>is tale wele tel can I, 
Of }'e rauens pat on pe king cries, 
And also what it signyfies. 

If pe king will hald pat he has hight 4005 

Vnto pam ])at kowth tel hiw right. 
To tel him wil I wele warand 
If he wil hald me lele couenand.' 

"J>e steward said: ' Lat swilk wordes be, 
For, son, pou may sone shend me ; 4010 

If pou tald a wrang resown, 
In euyl tyme come we to toun.' 
'Sir,' said pe childe, ' drede pe nathing ; 
I knaw ful wele pe fowles criyng ; 
Whari? any singes in wode or cage, 4015 

I vnderstand wele pair^ langwage.' 

3984 ^F highest. — 3987 JV i\\e for t\ixe. — 4001 Wpxmely. — 4002 TF said. — 
4013 IV ?.a.y<i\. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 135 

pe steward stode vp in pe hall 

A/ii/ to [l)e] king ]>an gan he call : 

' I haue a childe,' he said, ' sir kyng, 

)?at can tel ]'e j'ine asking : 4020 

Why ])€ thre rauens opon ]>e cry, 

^ud als what it may signyfy. 

If fou will hald pat ]'ou has hyght 

Vnto pam pat can tel pe right.' 

" ' §is,' said pe king, a/id parto swar^, 4025 

' Al pat I hight and mekyl mar*? 
Sal I gif him pat me tels 
Why pe thre rauens on me jelles.' 
J>e steward pe childe vnto pe king led, [47 b] 
A/id bad he sold noght be adred. 4030 

When pe child come to pe king, 
He bad he sold mak no lesyng. 
J>e childe said : ' Sir, by God mighty, 
I sal say noght bot sothfastly.' 

" J>an stode pe childe vp sone onane, 4035 

Bifor^ pe barons euerilkane. 
On him pai loked, bath les and mar^; 
So fair^ a childe saw pai neuer ar^. 
* Sirs,' he said, ' je se ilkane 

How a rauen sittes and cries allane. 4040 

Sir king,' he said, ' I tel it pe, 
It es pe femal of pe thre. 
And, sirs,' he sayd, * je se alswa 
How par^ sittes oper rauens twa. 
Also je se pairi? ferly far^, 4045 

How pe les cries on pe mar^. 
Ipe ma.Te of pam pe elder ys ; 

4018 MS. om. }>e. — 4021 W rauen. — 4022 MS. gignyfy. — 4024 Worn, can, J? 
kan tell, ryght. — 4025 H Yhis, kyng, pare to. — 4026. i? All, mykell. — 4027 R 
Sail, gyf. — 4028 A' Whi, yhels. — 4029 R child, kyng. — 4030 R suld. — 4031 
R kyng. — 4032 R suld. — 4033 W, R child, R be, myghty. — 4034 R sail. — 4035 
R child. — 4036 R Bi for. — 4037 R both less. — 403S R fair, child. — 4039 R yhe. 
— 4040 R syttes, cryes. — 4041 R kyng, tell. — 4042 R female. — 4043 IV, R said, 
R yhe, all swa. — 4044 R syttes. — 4045 R yhe, pair. — 4046 R less cryes. — 4047 
IV them, R is. 



136 THE SEVEN SAGES 

J>at o]'er female first was his. 

He held hir wele al threty jer^ ; 

JJan so bifell pat corn was der^, 4050 

J»arfor^ ]>e alder hir forsoke, 

And nothing wald he til hir loke. 

He fled fra hir in ]?at der^ tyme, 

And on ser^ sides soght sho hym. 

" ' f>us when pe alder hir gan forsake, 4055 

Ipe jonger toke hir to his make ; 
J>e jonger rauen hir toke j^at tyme 
For his felow forth with hym. 
He jemed hir ful wele always, 

Both by nightes and bi dayes. 4060 

Fro hir neuer fleghe he walde, 
Nowther for hunger ne for calde. 
Now es ]>e aid rauen cumen ogayn, 
And wald haue his fer*? ful fain. 
J?e aid rauen sais ]>zt sho es his ; 4065 

f>e jonger sais ]'at " Myne sho ys, 
For I haue wond with hir alway 
And left hir nowj^er night ne day." 
He sais sho sal noght part him fra, 
Nowper for wele ne for wa, 4070 

Til \>e dome, sir king, be gifen of ]>e, 
Whejier make pat sho sal be.' 

" J:>e child said : ' Sertainly, sir king, 
J>is es ])e cause of ]jair<? crying. 

When ])ou haues said to pam ]A will 4075 

And gifen pe dome by right and scyll, [47 c] 
Wheper of pam pat hir sal haue. 



4049 Ti all thretty yhere. — 4051 /? harfor. — 4052 /? till, luke. — 4053 7? fro. — 
4054 A' sydes, scho. — 4056 /? yhonger. — 4057 J? yhonger. — 4058 /v hime. — 4059 
/? yhemed, full, all ways. — 4060 A" bi nyghtes, days. — 4061 A" fle, wald. — 
4062 jR Nouther, cald. — 4063 A" comen o gayne. — 4064 J? full fayne. — 4065 J? 
scho. — 4066 A* yhonger, scho is. — 4067 J? alway mutilated. — 4068 R nouther 
nyght, ne mutilated. — 4069 R scho sail. — 4070 R Nouther. — 4071 R Till, kyng, 
gyfen. — 4072 R scho sail. — 4073 R kyng. — 4074 R J^air. — 4075 R has. — 4076 
R gyfen, be ryght, skyll, ^scill. — 4077 R sail. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 137 

Na mar^ on )'e |>an wil pai craue, 

Ne na mar,? mak noyse ne cri ; 

Hame |'ai wil wend hastyly.' 4080 

" J?e king toke kownsail of ))is thing 
At his barons aid and ^ing, 
How he sold deme pe rauens twa : 
Whilk sold hir haue atid whilk forga. 
]:'an al his barons talde him to, 4085 

How pat pam thoght best to do. 
Bi kownsail of barown and knyght 
J7e king gaf dome by reson right. 
He went byfor pa rauens thre, 

Afid stode pat pai al myght him se. 4090 

]7e rauens cried als pai war won ; 
J>e king spak vnto pam sone, 
And said pat pe female sold ay 
Dwel with hym, both night and day, 
J>at kepid hir fra noyes ser^ 4095 

In pat tyme pat pe corn was deri?; 
And he pat put hir pan him fra, 
By reson he sal hyr forga : 
He lufed hir noght, pis es sertayn, 
fJat wald with hunger sho had bene slayne. 4100 

" When pe alder rauen of pe twa 
Herd pe king gif pe dome swa, 
He made a cri and rewful mane ; 
JJar^of had meruayl many ane. 

On his' maner he morned fast, 4105 

And with swilk playnt oway he past. 
J»e king herd a7id saw al pis ; 

4078 R will. — 4079 R no, noys, cry. — 40807*? will wende hastily. — 4081 R 
kyng, counsail. — 40S2 /Falde, R yhing. — 4083 i? suld. — 4084 R suld. — 4085 R 
all, tald. — 4087 R counsail, baroune and of. — 4088 R kyng, bi, ryght. — 4089 
J*? bi for. — 4090 W om.2\, R2X\.. — 4091 i? cryed, wone. — 4092 y? kyng, W son. — 
4093 ^ suld. — ^ 4094 J*? Dwell, nyght. — 4095 R keped, fro. — 4096 IV om. \>e. — 
4098 R Be, sail hir. — 4099 R is sertaine. — 4100 /i' sch, slaine. — 4101 j? elder. 
— 4102 R kyng gyf. — 4103 R cry, rewfull. — 4104 R I'ar of, m^ruail. — 4105 R 
Hs instead of his, manere, murned. — 4107 R kyng, all. 



138 THE SEVEN SAGES 

In hert he had ful mekil blys. 

JJa oj'er gan fair^ fathers shake, 

And mekil myrth pan gan J^ai make; 41 10 

JJai toke a flight \_and^ flow oway; 

J>is thoght ]'e king a nobil play. 

JJe child he gert bifor^ hym call, 

Right })ar^ omang his barons all : 

He held him quaynt and wonder wise; 4115 

And ful wele quit he his seruise. 

" J?e king gaf him, |)ar^ in ]'at place, 
Hys doghter, als )'e couenant was, 
And half his kingdom, grete and small, 
And efter hym for to haue all. 4120 

Now has ]'at childe so mekil thing. 
He may be felow with erl and king. 

"Opon a day he hym bythoght [47 d] 
On hys fader \2X him forth broght. 
And on his moder ))at hym bar^. 4125 

J7an in grete pouert fallen J?ai war^ ; 
J>ai went for shame fra ])air^ cuntre. 
And come atid wond in pat cete 
Whar^ ])air^ son was lord and king. 
Bot ])ai ne wist noght of pat thing ; 4130 

Ne he wist noght pat pai war par^, 
Ne noght he knew of pair^ mysfar^. 
Bot als he lay opon a nyght. 
In a dreme pan thoght him right, 
J?at he was warned in visiowne, 4135 

His fader and moder was in pe town ; 
It bad he sold tak pam hym till, 
Atid also wirk what war pair^ will. 

4108 i? full mykell. — 4109 R hair, schake. — 4110 j? mykell. — 4111,4112^ 
first half of line obliterated. — 4 1 1 1 R . . yght, MS. otn. and. — 41 1 2 i? kyng, noble. 
— 41 13 R bi for him. — 41 14 R Ryght. — 4 116 R full, quytt, W om. he, R he hiw 
his. — 41 17 R kyng. — 41 18 R His, conand wase. — 41 19 R kyngdom gret. — 
4120 R him. — 4121 R haues, child, mykell. — 4122 R kyng. — 4123 R him 
bi thoght. — 4124 W, R his, R furth. — 4125 R him. — 4126 R gret. — 4127 R 
schame, J^air centre. — 4129 j^ hair, kyng. — 4132 A' hair. — 4134 >? ryght. — 4135 
R visyoune. — 4136 R toune. — 4137 R suld, him tyll. — 4138 R all so, W thare. 



THE SEVEN SAGES 



139 



" At morn |)e childe cald seriantes twa, 
And bad pai sold his erand ga, 4140 

Preuely into \t towne, 
And spir in stretes, vp ajid downe, 
Yiter a man of strange cuntre 
Newly c\xmex\, hys whife and he : — 
' His name es Gerard Nories son ; 4145 

Wayt pr(?uely whar^ |)ai mai won.' 
When ))ai him fand, he bad pam say 
f>at pai war welkuw alway 
To soiorn in ))at same cete, — 

And at ]>q king himself wald se 4150 

Of ])air^ far^ and of j^air^ life, 
Bath of him and of his wife ; 
And bid |)am ordain alkins thing 
On ]ie morn to kepe pe king, 

Mete and drink bath gude and fine: — 4155 

' For my wil es with pam to dine.' 

" J^e seriantes went with hert glad, 
And spird obowt als he ]>am bad ; 
Vp and down pai spirred ful fast, 
So pat pai fand pam at pe last. 4160 

When pai had funden pat man vnkowth, 
J>ai hailsed him mildely with mowth. 
' Sir,' pai said withouten leseing, 
' Wele pe gretes pe jong kyng. 

Afid, sir, he sendes pe word with me 4165 

J>at he wil cnm and dyne with pe 
Tomorn at prime, withowten delay ; 
J?arfor^ his mete luke je puruay.' 



4139^ child. — 4140 R suld. — 4141 J? toune. — 4142 ^ spyr, doune. — 4143 
J? Aher, straunge centre. — 4144 K comen his wife. — 4145 j^ noryes. — 4146 W 
priuely, R may. — 4148 R welcom all way. — 4150 R kyng. — 41 51 ^ their, R 
Jjair fair, l^air lyfe. — 4152 R Both, wyfe. — 4153 ^ bad, R byd, ordaine alkyns. 
— 4154 R kyng. — 4155 R drynk, ^F bathe, R bothe gud, fyne. — 4156 R will, 
dyne. — 4158 R spyrd o bout. — 4159 R doune, spyrd full. — 4161 R fonden, 
vncouth. — 4162 R myldely. — 4163 R lesyng. — 4164 R yhong. — 4166 R will 
come. — 4167 R pryme viith outen. — 4168 R par for, yhe. 



I40 . THE SEVEN SAGES 

' Sertanly, sirs,' pan sayd he, 

' J?e king es ful welku;;/ to me, [48 a] 4170 

And swilk gode, sirs, als we haue 

Vnto ]'e king w[e] vowche it saue.' 

Vntil his whif he sayd in hy : 

* Dame, in hert I am sary 

)?at we haue noght al ful plente 4175 

To welku^z swilk a lord als he.' 

" J>e gude wife said: 'Sir, greues jow noght; 
What so vs wantes sal sone be boght, 
So ]?at he sal be wele at ayse.' 

Vnto ]>e seriantes pan sho sais: 4180 

' Al pat we haue, sirs, in al thing 
Es redy vnto mi lord pe king.' 
\>e seriantes went pan hame ogayn, 
And sayd pe king pir sawes sertayn : 
How pat pai had funden pe man, 4185 

And how pat he pam answerd pan. 
J?an was pe king ful glad in hert 
J>at pai war^ hale and in quert. 

" On pe morn he toke a litel menje, 
And to his fader pan wendes he. 4190 

He rides right til his fader dori?; 
Seriantes of mace went him bifor^. 
Right at pe dor^ pan down he lyght, 
And went into pe hows ful right. 
J>e godeman welku;wed fayr^ ]'e kyng, 4195 

Bot of him had he na knawing ; 
J>e whife him welkuwd als ful rath ; 



4169 R Sertainly, R, W said. — 4170 R kyng, full welcom. — 417 1 R gud syrs. 

— 4172 R kyng, vouche, MS. om. e o/wq. — 4173 W^ Vntill, R vn tyll, wife, said. — 
4175 J? all full. — 4176 R welcom, kyng instead o/\oxdi. — 4177 ^ gud wyfe, yhow. 

— 4178 i? sail. — 4179 R sail. — 4180 R scho says. — 41S1 i? All, all. — 4182 W 
my, R kyng. — 4183 R ogayne. — 4184 R said, kyng, wordes instead 0/ sa.v{es, ser- 
tayne. — 4185 R fonden. — 4187 R kyng full. — 4188 R war, in gud quert. — 
4189 R lytell meneyhe. — 4191 R rydes ryght tyll. — 4192 R bi for. — 4193 R 
Ryght, doune. — 4194 R full ryght. — 4195 /? gud man welcomd fair. — 4196.^ 
no knawyng. — 4197 R wife, welcomd, full rathe, W welkumed. 



THE SEVEN SAGES I4I 

pe kyng thanked blithly )>am bath. 

pe kinges dener wele was grayd ; 

J>ai set trestes and hordes on layd, 4200 

J?ai spred clathes and salt on set, 

And made redy vnto ]>& mete ; 

J?ai set forth wat^r and towell. 

Herkens now how it bifell : 

In a gude kape ]»e king gan stand, 4205 

Als custume was pan in fat land. 

" When ])ai gaf water vnto f e king, 
J)e fader saw J>e sleue down hing ; 
He stirt parto and held it vp, 

For water sold noght j^aron drop. 4210 

J>e godewife gan bifor^ him stand, 
With a towayl to wipe his hand ; 
Sho honorde him at al hir myght. 
And when ]>e king saw )>is in sight, 
A squier he gert pe towayl take ; 4215 

And to his moder pan he spake, 
And to his fader in pat place. [48 b] 
'Fader,' he said, 'thurgh Goddes grace, 
Fulfild es now ]>e crakes crying, 

f>at talde bifor.? of al pis thing : 4220 

How pat I sold be recher man, 
And haue more welth pan je had pan ; 
And for I sayd it sold so be, 
Sir, je kest me in pe se.' 

"When pe fader herd pis tale, 4225 

In his hert he had grete bale. 
Al pa wordes ful wele he knew; 
He was so ferd him changed hew. 

4198 /? blythely, bathe. — 4199 /? kynges dyner. — 4200? sett trystes. — 4201 /? 
sette. — 4203 7? sett. — 420^ Id gud, kyng. — 4207 i? Whan, kyng. — 4208 /? doune 
hyng. — 4209 i? styrt \>a.Te to. — 4210 J? suld, J^are on. — 42 11 7? gud wife, bi for. 

— 4212 /? towell, wype. — 4213 I^ Scho hono?/rd, all. — 4214 /? kyng, syght. — 
4215 J? squyer, towell. — 4218 A' godes. — 4219 y? ffuU fyld. — 4220 fV, A" tald, /? 
all. — 4221 J? suld, rycher. — 4222 A' yhe. — 4223 /? said, suld. — 4224 A' yhe, see. 

— 4226 A' gret. — 4227 A* All, full. — 4228 A' chaunged. 



142 THE SEVEN SAGES 

He wend his son ]'an sold him sla, 

For fat he had hym serued swa. 4230 

Bot J^e kyng kissed )>am both in iere, 

And said: 'Bese meri, and mase gude cher^ ; 

For je sal be in ioy and blis, 

And nonekins myrthes sal je mys.' 

JJe king gaf sone into \2\xe handes 4235 

New tenementes and riche landes, 

And gold and syluer grete plente ; 

His fader and moder ])us helpid he." 

pus pis tale was broght til ende ; 
And Florentine with wordes hende, 4240 

And with reuerence and grete honowr^, 
Sayd to his fader, pe Emp^rowr^: 
" Fader, on fis wise wald je, 
Ogayns )'e right, haue gert sla me ; 
And fully haue je bene my fa. 4245 

Deri? fader, why do je swa ? 
I trispast na mar^ )jan did he, 
J>e childe ]'at was kast in ])e se ; 
And if I myght come to honowr^ 
For to be king or emp^rowr*?, 4250 

Wene je }>at I wald greue jow ? 
Nay, sir, ))at sal je neuer trow. 
Drawen a7id brend ar^ wald I be 
Or I wald greue my fader fre. 

And, fader, jowr*? wife, weterly, 4255 

Wald haue gert me lig hir by ; 
Bot I had leuer haue died als sone 
J»an )5at dede to 50W haue done." 

4229 j^suld. — 4230 W,R\\vca.. — 4231 ^kyssed. — 4232 /'mery, gud. — 4233 A" 
yhe sail, blys. — 4234 R nonekyns, sail yhe. — 4235 R kyng gafe, >air. — 4236 R 
ryche. — 4237 R gret. — 4238 R helped. — 4239 R tyll, ^end. — 4240 /* ffloren- 
tyne. — 424 1 R om. first And, hut inserts vihh after second and ; R gret honoure. — 
4242 R Emperoure. — 4243 R yhe. — 4244 A' ryght. — 4245 R yhe. — 4246 R whi, 
yhe. — 4247 R tryspast no more, dyd. — 4248 R child. — ^4249 R com, honoure. — 
4250 .ff kyng, Emperoure. — 4251 R yhe, yhow. — 4252 R sail yhe. — 4253 R brent. 
— 4255 R yYiotir, witerly. — 4256 A* lyg. — 4257 R dyed. — 4258 R yhow. 



THE SEVEN SAGES I43 

When ]>e Emp^rour^ herd how he sayd, 
Of ]>at poynt he was noght payd ; 4260 

And sone he sent eher his whife, 
J>at him had made so mekil strife. 

"Dame," he sayd, " es fis soth thing?" 
" §a, sir," sho sayd, " by heuyn kyng ; [48 c] 
He says al soth in ]?is sesowne, 4265 

And I sal say by what resowne : 
For he sold do na harm ]>e till. 
And also for pis sertayne skyll, 
J»at mi sons sold be na bastardes, 
Bot haue ]>i landes and be grete lardes. 4270 

^^And, sir, I dred me jit alswa 
f>at he sold haue pe empire? pe fra, 
Her^eft^r when pou cums on elde 
And may noght wele piseluen welde ; 
JJarfor^ I wald haue had him dede, 4275 

J>at my barnes might be in ]n stede. 
And on ])is wise, sir, haue I soght 
To ger hym vnto ded be broght." 

"A! dame," said pe Empi?rowr<f, 
"]?ou haues bene a fals gilowr^, 4280 

And with }n treson done me tene ; 
J>at sal now on piself be sene; 
For )n gaudes and pi gilry 
I gif pis dome pat pou sal dy. 

Sakles pou wald my son haue slayne ; 4285 

J>iself sal haue pe same payne ; 
Jji witchecraft afid pi sorceri 
Sal pou now ful der^ aby. 

4259 R Empi?rour. — 4260 TF payde. — 4261 R sent men, wyfe. — 4262 A* 
mykell stryfe. — 4263 R said, JV sothe. — 4264 R Yha, scho said bi heuen. — 4265 
Worn, al, R als, sesoune. — 4266 R sail, be, resoune. — 4267 R suld, no harme, 
tyll. — 4268 R sertaine, fF skill. — 4269 R suld, no. — 4270 R gret. — 4271 IV 
drede, R yhit all swa. — 4272 R suld, Empyre. — 4273 R comes, eld. — 4274 j^ 
weld. — 4275 J*? par for, ded. — 4276 R myght. — 4278 W, R him. — 4279 R Em- 
peroure. — 4280 W ben, R giloure. — 4282 R sail. — 4283 W gandes, R gylry. — 
4284 R gyf, sail. — 4286 R sail. — 4287 IV witchcraft, R wyche craft, sorcery. 
— 4288 R Sail, full. 



144 THE SEVEN SAGES 

JJou grantes fiself her^ al ]>e gilt ; 

pdiviove es reson ]?ou be spilt. 4290 

If fou lifed lenger, it war wath, 

For ful sone wald pou shend vs bath ; 

An{/ sen fou grantes ]>i werkes wrang, 

It nedes no quest on j^e to gang. 

f>ou ert worthy })e ded to take, 4295 

By rightwis dome, for my son sake." 

J>e Emp^rour^ gert bifor hym call 
His knightes and hys menje all, 
And sayd : " Sirs, smertly for my sake, 
A grete fire ]>z.t je ger make, 4300 

Hastily at ]>e towns end ; 
For Jjaryn sal ]ns whif be brend, 
With mekyl dole, )ns day or none, 
For ]>e tresown ]>at sho has done ; 
And loke je spar^ hyr neueradele, 4305 

For sho has serued it ful wele." 
f'e barons war al of ane asent, 
J>at sho sold haue )>at same iugeme«t. 
And al ]>e knyghtes fast gan cri : 
" Do to ded ]'at fals lady, 4310 

J>at with hir wichecraft and hir rede [48 d] 
Wald haue gert fe childe be ded ! " 

Sone ])ai made, onane right, 
A fair*? fir.?, brinand ful bright. 

J>an fai tok )?at fair^ lady; 4315 

Yt helpid hyr noght to ask mercy. 
J>ai band hir fast, bath fote and hand, 
JJat sho myght nowfer rise ne stand. 

4289 J? grauntes, gylt, om. al. — 4290 /? ^ar for, spylt. — 4291 7? lyfed lengar. 
— 4292 J? full, schend. — 4293 A' grauntes. — 4296 J? Be ryghtwise. — 4297 
J? Emperour, IV, R him. — 429S R knyghtes, IV, R his, R meneyhe. — 4299 R 
said Syrs, ^F Sir. — 4300 ^ fyre, yhe. — 4301 /Ftownes, j? tounes ende. — 4302 R 
l^are in sail, wife. — 4303 R mykell. — 4304 R treson, scho. — 4305 R yhe, hir. — 
4306 R scho, full. — 4307 R all, assent. — 4308 R scho suld. — 4309 R all, cry. — 
4312 j'? child, dede. — 4313 R ryght. — 4314 A'fayr fyrebrynand full bryght. — 4315 
Widiyr, R fair. — 4316 R helped hir. — 4317 R both. — 4318 R scho, nouth.fr ryse 



THE SEVEN SAGES 145 

Hir fete pai fast vnto hir swyr^, 

A?id lete hir flye in myddes ]»e fir*?. 4320 

f>us was )je ladies ending day, 

And )jus was sho quit her iornay. 

f'e childe lifed with grete honowr^, 

And efter his fader was Emp^rour^, 

And led his life with werkes wise, 4325 

And ended se]'[e]n in Goddes seruyse. 

JJusgate endes al })is thing; 

Ihesu grante vs his blyssyng ! 

AMEN. 

4320 /? fyre. — 4321 J? ladyse endyng. — 4322 i? scho quyt, ^f^ jornay, /d 
iourna.y. — 4323 /? child lyfed, gret honowre. — 4325 J^ lyfe, wyse. — 4326 MS. 
se^n, /? sythen, godes. — 4327 i? all. — 4328 IV Jesu, /? grannt, W^blessyng. 



NOTES 



ABBREVIATIONS 

A : Auchinleck MS., published by Weber, Metrical Romances, III, pp. 8 f. 

A*: the group of MSS. typified by the O. F. prose text published in part by Leroux de 
Lincy, Roman des Sept Sages, pp. 79 f . 

Ar: MS. Arundel 140 (unpublished). 

As: the Asloan MS. (unpublished). 

B: MS. Balliol 354 (unpublished). 

C : MS. Cotton Galba E. ix, published in the present volume. 

cr: the lost M. E. MS. whence C and R were copied. 

D: Cambridge University MS. Dd. I. 17, published by Wright, Percy Society Publica- 
tions, XVI, pp. I f . 

D* : " Version Derimee," published by G. Paris, Deux Redactions du Roman des Sept 
Sages, pp. I f. 

E: MS. Egerton 1995 (unpublished). 

F: Cambridge University MS. Ff. II. 38 (unpublished). 

H : the group of MSS. and editions typified by the Historia Scptem Sapientiim, published 
by G. Buchner, Erlanger Beitr'dge, V, pp. 7 f., and others. 

I: " Versio Italica," a group of Italian and Latin redactions, MSS. of which have been 
published by Cappelli, Mussafia, and others. 

K: the O. F. metrical version published by Keller. 

L : the O. F. prose version published by Leroux de Lincy, Roman des Sept Sages, pp. i f. 

M: "La Male Marrastre" (unpublished). 

R: MS. Rawlinson Poet. 175 (unpublished; but its variants from C appear in the foot- 
notes to this edition). 

S : the Latin prose version preserved in the Scala C«/f,and republished by Goedeke, Orient 
und Occident, III, pp. 402 f. 

W : Weber's edition of A. 

X : the lost M. E. MS. whence y and D were derived. 

Y : the group of M. E. MSS. (A, Ar, E, B, F, C, R) derived from y. 

y : the lost M. E. MS. whence Y was derived. 



148 



NOTES 



Proces. Abbreviated only in C. For abbreviations in both C and R, see the 
Introduction, pp. Ixix and Ixxi respectively. 

1. here. The curled ;-, of which C is very fond, is printed re. R never has the 
curled ;-, but uses instead r or re. See note on 1. 30 (ayre') for final re in C. 

2. jowre. Always spelled with a 5 except in 1. 2700 {yozure). — The letter 
5 in C is graphically the same as z (see note to 1. 491). R has yh where C has 
palatal 5. Weber consistently substitutes^ for the palatal 5. No account of this 
substitution is taken in the footnotes. 

and. C abbreviates and both initially and medially except in 11. 1059, 2684, 
3289, and 4255. R always spells out initial a^id, but abbreviates a7id medially, with 
only a few exceptions. In 11. 29, 42, 74, R abbreviates only the n in and. 

3. Repeated in 1. 256. Other lines repeated are 40 (= 3194), 439 (= 457), 631 
(=2181), 2363 (=3051), and 2577 (=3061). For Unes identical except for one 
word, see note to 1. 10. 

tome, leisure. Also in 11. 256 and 980, and not uncommon in other texts. 
Weber remarks in his Glossary that tome is " a curious alteration of the word 
time for the sake of the rhyme." 

6. Dyoclician. All M. E. versions call the Emperor Diocletian ; so likewise do 
the O. F. versions A*, L, and S. Of other versions H reads Pontianus ; K, Ves- 
pasian ; D*, Marcomeris, the son of Priam ; and the Dolopatkos, Dolopathos. 
Diocletian figures also in the Erl of Tolous. 

7. Rome. The scene of The Seven Sages is laid in Rome in all western ver- 
sions except K and D*, in which at the beginning of the story the Emperor is 
ruling in Constantinople. 

10. be fayrest lady ]7at bare life. Repeated, except for the interchange of 
had -with, bare, in 1. 3272. For other lines identical except for one word, see the 
notes to 11. 79, 123, 1 1 53, 1765, 1836, 2368, and 3022. For lines entirely identical, 
see note to 1. 3. 

11. auenant. Weber reads anenaunt. Other instances of inaccuracy in 
Weber's text are indicated in the footnotes to 11. 15, 46, 54, 56, 57, 63, 72, 78, 86, 
90, 92, 93, 97, etc. 

12. Milisant. This name for the Empress seems to be peculiar to Y; it 
appears elsewhere only in B and F, however, for E is silent as to her name and 
the text of A and Ar is wanting at this point. D calls the Empress Helie. As, 
like E, does not mention her name. D* says that she was the daughter of the 
king of Carthage. The Welsh version calls her Eva. In the Dolopathos she is 
known as Auguste. 

149 



I50 NOTES 

14. Ipe fayrest }jat on fote myght go. See also " pe fayrest lady hat bar^ 
life," 1. 10, and " pe fairest lady ^at had lyfe," 1. 3272. A list of typical expres- 
sions similar to these is given by Kittredge in Studies and Notes, I, p. 36 f., 
where attention is also called to the frequency of such expressions in M. E. 

15. knaue. The final e appears to be syllabic. There are, however, only a few 
instances in which the final e has syllabic value ; see the Introduction, p. Ixxiii. 

17. This line does not begin with a rubricated letter in the MS., but is preceded 
by a flourish in red and blue, which I take to indicate paragraph division. Some- 
times, however, as in 11. 2491, 2903, 3555, this flourish appears where there is no 
logical justification for paragraph division, and I have accordingly disregarded it. 
In other instances this flourish is omitted where the thought clearly calls for 
indentation; as in 11. 363, 1435, 1817, 1955, etc. 

18. D reserves mention of the death of the first Empress until just before its 
account of the marriage to the second Empress. — According to H the first 
Empress on her death-bed sends for the Emperor and tells him that she knows 
he will marry again, but requests that the second wife shall have " no power nor 
governaunce " over the Prince and that he be reared far away from court and not 
under her tuition. 

21. Whej^er. Medially C sometimes has/, sometimes th ; R avoids/ medially. 

23, 24. aide : balde. A very common rhyme in M. E. romance ; see Kolbing's 
note to Sir Beues (A), 1. 52 f. and Hall's note to King Horn (L and 0), 11. 17, 18. 

25. Florentine. Both MSS. spell with ff instead of F, ff being regularly 
used for capital F. R is more partial to_^ than is C, using it often where there is 
no occasion for capitalizing. 

The name Florentitie, like Milisant, is peculiar to Y ; it appears here and in 
A, E, B, and F, the text of Ar at this point having been lost. D and most of the 
O. F. versions are silent as to the Prince's name. As and H call the Prince Dio- 
cletian ; I calls him Stephen, and the Dolopathos, Lucinius. — How the name 
Florentine came to be used in Y is not clear. It is possible that it is due to the 
influence of the romance of Octovian, in which one of the princes who figure in 
the story is called Florentine (variant, Florent) ; see Octovian, 11. 31 1, 686, 703, 759, 
789, etc. On the other hand, it is possible that the Octovian was influenced by The 
Seven Sages, though this is unlikely, since the name Florent appeared in the O. F. 
original of the M. E. Octovian. The name Florentine also occurs in some of the 
O. F. manuscripts of Amis and A??tiloun (see Kolbing, Altengl. Bibk., II, p. cxxvii) ; 
and, in its brief er form, in Gower's "Tale of Florent," Conf. Amant., Bk. 1, 11. I407f. 

28. whise. See also whise (or whiser), 11. 154, 334, 2799; wharni, 1. 2906; 
whif (ox whife), 11. 1559, 1593, 1598, etc.; and whit, 1. 3741. In some instances, 
however, a w is used instead of wh ; see wat, 1. 2962 ; weti, 11. 1 131 and 2315 ; and 
7vils, 1. 1344. 

30. ayre. C has final re rather than curled r in about forty instances ; see 
11. 115, 143, 208, 508, 520, etc. 

31. It was nothing. For other instances of it 7uas (or it es) where Mod. Eng. 
uses t/iere was (or t/iere is), see \\. 750, iioi, and 1877. Morris, Fricke 0/ Conscience, 
p. xviii, observes that the construction is frequent in the Northern dialect. 



NOTES 



151 



Kellner, Engl. Syntax, p. 179, instances no less than six examples of it from the 
first 2500 lines of the Cursor Mundi. 

53. Bancillas. Except for As, the names of the sages are essentially the same 
in all M. E. MSS., — Bancillas, Anxilles, Lentilioun, Malquidras, Caton, Jesse, and 
Maxencius. In As they are called Bantillas, Anupullus, Lentalus, Catone, Mal- 
come, Ampustinus, and Cratone. In L and A* their names are the same as in this 
edition except that Merons appears there instead of Maxencius. in H their names 
are Bantillas, Lentulus, Katho (or Craton), Malquidrac, Josephus, Cleophas, and 
Joachim, in the order given. — Whence the name Bancillas is derived it is impos- 
sible to say. Cassel {Mischle Sindbad, p. 225) takes Bancillas and Anxilles to be 
variants of the same name, which he holds is Sibylla. 

66. Anxilles. Is it possible that Michael Anchialus, a philosopher and writer 
of Antioch in the twelfth century, is the original of this name .'' See note to 1. 53 
for Cassel's suggestion of a derivation from Sibylla. 

68. him seined. Other instances of the impersonal verb with its grammatical 
subject unexpressed occur in 11. 91, 223, 226, 296, 340, 442, 449, 472, 693, 695, 780, 
814, 934,975, 1 146, 1 181, 1509, 1522, 1570, 1582, 1619, 1669, 1777, 1810, 181 1, 1865, 
1907, 1999, 2052, 2425, 2431, 2563, 2663, 2747, 2815, 2850, 2853, 2872, 2905, 2970, 
2994. 3159. 3169. 3196. 321S' 3243. 3343. 3388, 3400, 3476, 3610, 3633,3747, 3794, 
4050, 4086, 4134. In all except eighteen of these instances a pronoun in the 
dative case precedes the verb. In seventeen instances the verb is think (A. S. 
/>y}ican), or its preterite, thoght. 

6g. Of sexty winter. Peculiar to this text. 

76. sex sere. F reads five years ; L (A*), seven years ; D*, two years. 

78. white als swan. There are five other such comparisons in the poem ; see 
11. 122, 1012, 31 10, 3112, and 3282. 

79. Identical with 1. 121 except that blayke there takes the place of white here. 
See notes to 11. 10 and 3. 

nathing brown. See Kolbing, note to Sir Tristrem, 1. 2313; and Kittredge, 
Studies and Azotes, I, p. 62 f . " This trick of reinforcing a word by adding to it the 
negative of a word of opposite meaning is," says Kittredge {I.e., p. 62 f.), " one of 
the most familiar stylistic mannerisms of Middle English versifiers." 

80. Lentilioune. Derived from Publius Cornelius Lentulus, politician and con- 
spirator (put to death B.C. 63), or from some other one of the prominent Romans 
who bore the name Lentulus. 

84. This line in both C and R has but three stresses ; other lines that are too 
short are 601, 1868, 1901, 1918, 2168, 2972, 3021, 3497, 3576. 

86. seres fine. So L (A*) and H. F reads five years ; D*, six years. 

88. Malquidras. According to Cassel {Mischle Sindbad, p. 224) derived from 
Melchior, but this view is surely untenable. 

91. Him thoght scorn. According to W. van der Gaaf, The Transitiott fro?n 
the Impersonal to the Personal Constructio7i in M.E., Heidelberg, 1904, p. 115, 
this idiom is very rare ; he cites only one example : " Hure thoughte most scorn " 
(Brunne's Chron., 1. 2407). The construction with the personal pronoun as sub- 
ject, however, he shows to have been common from the fifteenth century on. 



152 NOTES 

92. rosing, " boasting, self -commendation " (see Scottish roose). Weber reads 
Josyng, which he defines as rejoicing, adding that the word is " still used in the 
Scottish dialect " ; but neither the N. E. D. nor the Century Dictionary takes 
account of any such word. Halliwell's entry of josyng in his Dictionary of 
Archaic and Provincial Words is doubtless wholly traceable to Weber's entry. 

104. Caton. Not Cato the Censor (as Cassel suggests, I.e., p. 233), but the 
so-called Dionysius Cato, author of the famous Cato?iis Disticha, which is referred 
to in the next line. See Skeat's note to Cant. Tales, G, 1. 688. — The name is 
spelled Craton in As and H. 

105. boke of Catoun = Catonis Disticha de Moribus ad Jiliuni. 
115. seuen sere. As and H read three years ; D*, five years. 

119. lesse. Cassel (I.e., p. 224) suggests that the original of this name is 
Josephus, the historian. 

121. blayke, "light, yellow." (Cf. N.E.D. under Blayhe.) See L (A*), p. 3 : 
"les cheueus plus jaunes que cire merrie " ; and B, 1. loi : " His here was yelow 
as the safferon." 

nothing broun. See note to 1. 79. 

122. With eghen faire als a faukoun. B, the only other one of the M. E. 
MSS. that preserves this comparison, has (1. 102) : " He looked lustely as a 
Fawcon." See note to 1. 78. 

123. were. Apparently a substitution of the preterite for the present in the 
interest of the rhyme; see 1. 133, which differs from this line only in the substitu- 
tion of be for were. Another instance of abnormal adjustment of form to rhyme 
is pointed out in the note to 1. 221 1. 

126. inwith. See Skeat's notes to Cant. Tales, B, 1. 1794, a.ndi Legend 0/ 
Good Women, 1. 86. 

seres thre. So E, B, and D*. As and H read two years. 

128. 58. The other masters have addressed the Emperor as hoii, and lesse 
has used the possessive // in 11. 123, 124. Both MSS. use /o?/ and \e indiscrim- 
inately in addressing one person. See, for -^e, 11. 323, 326, 329, 331, 549, etc.; for 
koti, 11. 72, 342, 343, 344, 347, 426, etc. 

129. Maxencius. Possibly to be traced to the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius 
Maxentius, whose father was a colleague of Diocletian ; but, with greater likeli- 
hood, to the monk Joannes Maxentius, of the sixth century a.d. L (A*) sub- 
stitutes Merons for Maxencius, which Cassel {I.e., p. 224) — rightly, I think — 
would trace to the Maro of Virgilius Maro. 

129 f. J>e seuind Maister, Maxencius ... he. The text affords sundry other 
examples of the pleonastic pronoun subject (see 11. 317 f., 489-490, 531, 811, 884- 
885, 1108, 3145-3146, 3749-3750, and 4247-4248), but none in which the construc- 
tion is so loose and in which the two elements are so far removed from each other. 

130. right wis. Perhaps to be read as one word; see rightwis in 11. 2134, 
3038, 3238, and 4296. But MSS. and Weber divide as here; E, 1. 123 ("The 
VII. mayster of grete clergy "), also seems to favor this reading. 

134. The text of A begins with the line corresponding to this. This line, which 
does not appear in Weber's text, reads as follows : " For }>e mede of mi seruise." 



NOTES 153 

139. In A, E, B, F, and L (A*), as here, the seventh sage stipulates no definite 
time within which to make good his offer ; in As, D*, and H he specifies one year 
as the time. 

147-154. An amplification peculiar to this text. 

151. 56 prefer. The pres. plu. ind. with a personal pronoun subject in direct 
contact with it is regularly uninflected in fourteenth-century Northern texts ; 
see Rodeffer, The Inflection of the Pres. Phi. Ind., Baltimore, 1903. The rule 
is invariably observed in this text ; see 11. 261, 265, 323, 329, 1891, 2026, etc. 

169. pai said in Rome dwel might he noght. In As this bit of counsel is 
offered by Lentulus ; in D and H, by Caton. 

176. A myle fra toun, bi a reuere. So also A, E, B, and As. L (A*) has 
merely " un liue pres de Rome." 

180. erth. R reads erthe, which is probably the correct reading. The rhythm 
of the line is otherwise exceptionally bad. Final e is sometimes syllabic in both 
C and R; see note to 1. 15. 

191. Ars Metrike. See N. E. D. under Arithtnetic for the confusion in M. E. 
of ars metrica with arithmetica. — E reads ars miisike ; B, ars logike. R, probably 
by error of the scribe, substitutes als for Ars. 

193. child sage. The uninflected genitive occurs twenty-one times ; see 11. 287, 
914, 1 126, 1346, 1387, 1430, 1438, 1496, 2053, 2803, 3089, 3131, 3217, 3220, 3364, 
3762, 3778, 3997, 4191, and 4296. In nine instances this genitive is followed by a 
word beginning with s. 

201-206. An amplification peculiar to this redaction. 

211. Was none so witty. See also 1. 964: "was . . . a . . . forest " ; 1. 1690 : 
"was a king " ; and 1. 2542 : " es none so wise man." 

215. his maisters. According to As it was the wise Caton who first conceived 
of this. 

217. leues sextene. L illogically reads "douze feuilles," but later corrects to 
read as here. 

218. iubarb, the houseleek. See N. E. D.yxxv^^x Jttbarb. The A\ j5'. Z>. quotes 
Holland's Pliny, 1601, II, p. 237 : "The lesse Sengreen or Iubarb groweth upon 
walls . . . likewise upon the tiles of house-roofs " ; and Bradley's Family Dic- 
tionary, 1725, s.v. : " The Great Jubarb is a Plant that has great Pulpy and thick 
Leaves, . . . sharp at the Ends like a Tongue." R spells Itibark. As reads edoke 
(see N. E. D. under Edocke). Other M. E. MSS. and the O. F. MSS. read izy. 

222. foure. Dissyllabic apparently; so, z.\s,o, foure (1. 3882), werld (1. 448), 
thnrgh (11. 1802, 1851, 2,^0"]), potter (1. 2i6()),flre (1. 31 12), Zind gold (11. 3558, 3589). 

226-233. An independent addition of this redaction. 

229, 230. doun : won. Apparently a slightly inaccurate rhyme ; but see done 
(1. 685), and the rhymes boivne: Caton (11. /\^()-^6d), Eniperotire : 6"^?//^;^ (11. 345-346), 
and Emparo'ivre : honeore (11. 593-594)- Other rhymes which are at least graph- 
ically imperfect are grettes : lifes (11. 951-952), high : negh (11. 985-986), ivell : still 
(11. 1587-1588), gar diner e : fire (11. 1935-1936), and brend : assent (11. 2321-2322). 

230. won. This spelling (or its variant, wone) occurs also in 11. 729, 988, 1454, 
1546, 2784, 3620, 365/:, and 4091, rhyming in three cases with sone, twice with 



154 NOTES 

sun {son), and once with on. Though anomalous, the form is occasionally met 
■with in other MSS. ; see, for example, the text of Troibis in MS. Camb. Gg. IV. 
27, 11. 901, 1485, 4378, 4553, etc. 

257. lat we be. A very common formula for transition ; see Schmirgel, Appen- 
dix to Kolbing's Sir Beues, E.E. T.S., Ex. Ser., LXV, p. 1. 

264. fandes. Either an imperative (in which case the change of construction 
is very awkward), or a noun, meaning attempts. 

269. an emperise. According to H, the daughter of the king of Castille. 

283. vnhid. Just the opposite of what is meant. Professor William Hand 
Browne, of Johns Hopkins University, has kindly suggested to me that vnkid 
(= unrevealed) should perhaps be substituted for it. 

285. a seriant nyce. The Welsh version has instead "a wicked hag"; see 
G. H. Jones's translation, p. 647 : " And one day she came to the house of a 
wicked hag, with but one eye, and without a tooth in her head, and she said to 
the hag: In God's name, where are the children of the Emperor? He has none, 
quoth the hag. Woe is me, said she, that he is childless! Thereupon the hag 
took pity on the other hateful woman, saying : Thou needst not do that ; there is 
a prophecy that he will get children, and perchance it will be that he will get them 
by thee, since he will not get them by another; and be not sad, he has one son, 
who is being nurtured by the Wise Men of Rome." 

299, 300. a counsailoure, A wiche. The counseling with a witch, though it 
reminds somewhat of the amplification of the Welsh version reproduced in the 
note to 1. 285, was in all probability an invention of the redactor of cr. The hag 
in the Welsh version plays the patt of the seriant nyce of this version; the rdle 
of the witch here finds nothing corresponding to it in the Welsh. 

317 f. f'e Emp[er]oure and his . . . wife . . . ]7ai. See note to 1. 129 f. 

340. Me think. Also in 11. 449, 1582, 3197, 3215, and 3610. The verb is 
uninflected in every instance, as was normal in Northern works of the fourteenth 
century (see van der Gaaf, The Transition from the Impersonal to the Personal 
Construction in M. E., p. 93 f.). The verb think = think (A. S. J>encaii), however, 
is regularly inflected; see 11. 1205, 1350, 3472, 3872. 

348. vnderon. Variously used in M. E. to mean : " Nine o'clock in the morn- 
ing; the period from nine o'clock to noon ; the canonical hour of terce ; . . . noon 
or afternoon; also, a noon meal." — Century Dictiotiary. Here the meaning 
is perhaps nine o'clock in the morning (see note on prime, 1. 359, and Skeat's 
note on Chaucer's use of the term, Complete Works 0/ Chaucer, V, p. 275) ; perhaps 
midday (see F. Tupper, Jr., Anglo-Saxoti Dag-Ma-l, Pub. Mod. Laiig. Assoc, of 
America, 1895, ^' P- 164 f.). 

359. prime. Probably high prime, or nine o'clock in the morning ; see note on 
1. 348, and Skeat's note referred to there; also Tupper, I.e., p. i58f. 

363. The line clearly begins a new paragraph, but there is neither rubric nor 
flourish in the MS. See note to 1. 17. 

378. hastily. According to As, 11. 148-149, they are commanded to bring him 
home, " In the fest of the Trinite, Or ellis dreidles thai all suld de "; similarly H, 
p. 10 : " quod sub pena mortis in festo Penthecostes f;lium suum ad eum ducerent." 



NOTES 155 

393- * gardine. Called in 1. 482, " Boys Saynt Martine." See note. 

394. Floreentine. The curled r occurs medially only here and in couret, 1. 2694, 
and sme7-etly, 1. 3538. 

400. Catoun. In F it is Ancilles who observes the stars ; in D*, Bancillas. 

428. Dissyllabic thesis in each of the first two feet. 

448. werld. To be read as a dissyllable (see note to 1. 222). 

476. scho. So always in R, but C has sho except here and in U. 619 and 2422. 

482. Boys Saynt Martine. L (A*), p. 9: "bois saint Martin"; H, p. 9: 
" viridarium sancti Martini." Other M. E. MSS. preserving the name are A, E, B, 
and F. An industrious hunt through guidebooks and atlases reveals nothing 
with the name of St. Martin, either in Rome or in its environs, which answers to 
the description here given. The church, St. Martin in the Mount, which is very 
ancient, is neither outside of the city nor near the Tiber. Is it possible that the 
name is, after all, to be traced to the Campus Martius ? There seems to be such 
a confusion of Mars and St. Martin in Mount Mai-tytt, Octavian {1. passim), where 
Montmartre (Paris) is meant. — For a sketch of the life of St. Martin and an 
account of the traditions concerning him, see Chambers, Book of Days, under 
Martinmas. 

487. For other examples of sudden transition from indirect to direct discourse, 
see 11. 565, 1127, 1241, 2371, 3183, 4066, 4145, and 4156. 

491. When J;e Emperiz herd ti}»and. C is less faithful to the original here than 
are some of the rest of the M. E. MSS. In A (1. 423 f.), E (1. 385 f.), and B 
(1. 403 f.), as m L (A*) (p. 9), it is the Emperor who first receives tidings of the 
approach of the Prince ; he goes out to meet him, gives him a cordial welcome, 
and conducts him to his palace. The Empress then first appears. 

Emperiz. The only instance of this spelling. The letter z, which, as pointed 
out in the note to 1. 2, is identical in C with palatal 5, is used elsewhere only in 
Sarezins, or Sarzins (11. 3073, 3122, 3136, t^i 4i\), perzayued (1. 3452), and benzown 
(I.3811). 

498 f. The story of the stepmother's advances, the young prince's repulsion 
of her advances, and her outcry in consequence, had its ultimate origin perhaps 
in the scriptural story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife (Genesis, xxxix. 7-20). But 
the motif was not uncommon in mediaeval fiction; see W. H. Schofield in "The 
Lay of Guingamor," Studies and Motes, 1897, IV, p. 237, and in " The Lays of Grae- 
lent and Lanval," Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc, of America, 1900, XV, p. 147 f. ; see also 
Kittredge, "Arthur and Gorlagon," Studies and Notes, 1903, VIII, p. 255, note 3. 

512. F and D* add that she assured him that she would slay the Emperor and 
thus get him out of their way. 

524. According to H (p. 13) when the Empress has failed in her efforts to 
induce the Prince to speak, she brings him writing materials and has him answer 
her in writing. 

530. couercheues. To be read as a dissyllable. 

533. al to-drogh. Al to-raced occurs in 1. 535, and al to-rent in 11. 541 and 551. 
See Skeat's note on al to-rente, Cant. Tales, B, 1. 3215. The scribe of C wrote alto 
as one word in each instance. 



156 NOTES 

542. Hir hare, hir face was. IVas is perhaps a plural ; perhaps a singular 
traceable to the asyndeton. The regular form for the pret. ind. plu. is zcar (see 
11. 34, 37, 161, 187, etc.), but was is used with a plural subject in 11. 623, 1319, 
1692, and 4136, and perhaps also in 11. 3567 and 3692. £s also is used as a plural 
in 1. 2144. See Kellner, p. 48 f. 

554) 556. Ger, gers. Both C and R pretty consistently differentiate between the 
singular and the plural of the imperative, distinguishing the latter by an inflectional 
s (see, for the singular, 11. 59, 71, 135, 545, 565, etc. ; for the plural, 11. 2, 41, 316, 
577, etc.). The apparent inconsistency here may perhaps be explained as only 
apparent, Ger being accounted for by its proximity to />i (1. 553), a.nd£-efs by its 
proximity to 5^ (1. 557) ; for, as pointed out in the note to 1. 128, J>ou and 5^ are 
used indiscriminately. It may be, however, that in gers we have an example of 
an inflected imperative singular, which Rodeffer, Inflection of Pres. Plu. Ind., 
pp. 45 and 47, asserts is found in some Northern texts. Other instances of the 
inflected form where only one person is addressed are : Trowes, 1. 938 ; Gose, 
1. 2706; Biddes, 1. 2734 ; Smites, 1. 3013; takes, 1. 3081 ; and ihinkes, 1. 3472. 

575-578. Peculiar to this redaction. 

579. ]7e knightes. In F the Prince's life is saved the first day, not by the 
knights but by a steward ; see 11. 380-393 : 

Then come forthe the steward. 

And seyde : " Sjr, thys was not forward 

When that y helde the thy londe, 

When two kyng^j bade I'e batell w/t// wrong. 

And then \>ow swere be heuen Kyng 

Thou schuldest n&xer warne me myn askyng. 

Geue me thy sones lyfe to-day, 

Gentyll Empt-rour, y the pray ; 

And let hym to-morowe be at J>y wylle, 

Whethur Jjou wylt hym saue or spylle." 

" I graunt the," seyde the Emperour, 

" To geue hym lyfe, be Seynt Sauyoz^r! 

All for the respyte of a nyght 

For the mede that y the hyght." 

Heading p. 20. Proces. The name given to the poem as a whole (see the 
general heading, p. i). It is used here and in the headings to the next four pro- 
logues with its usual value, I take it, of story, though the word prolong (see note 
to heading p. 49) is used in the corresponding place in the headings to the last 
ten prologues. 

601. This line as it appears in both MSS. is too short (see note to 1. 84). 
A, 1. 533, reads, " He that schal in thin eld age," thus fortifying the line by the 
use of a word which, in C, is used in the rhyme of the line preceding. 

612. pine-appel tre, pine tree. A, E, B, and F xezA pinnate tre (= "pine-nut 
tree " = pine) ; As, L (A*), D*, and H have simply pine. Weber defines pinnote tre 
as " a red-stocked or round-leaved vine " ; see his Glossary. 

620. a man. According to As, 1. 289, named Cornele. 



NOTES 



157 



623. barein was mani trese. See note to 1. 542 for several other instances 
of zuas with a plural subject. The form here and in 1. 1319 is perhaps due to the 
inversion of subject and predicate. 

628. herber. Used here probably with the first of the five different mean- 
ings entered in the N.E.D. under Arbotir : "a plot of ground covered with 
grass " ; though it is quite possible that it means a bower or shady retreat (see 
N. E. D., Arbour, 5). 

631. So it bifel opon a day. Used again in 1. 2181, and in Sir Beiies (A), 
1. 4008 ; Amis a)id A/niloun, 1. 925 ; Perceval, 1. 2 14 1 ; and Erl of Toloiis, 11. 181, 493, 
997. See also Lib. Desc, 1. 31 : "As hit befell upon a day"; and Sir Thopas, 
Cant. Tales, B, 1. 1938: "And so bifel upon a day," where Chaucer is making 
fun of the formula. 

665. be ymp . . . wax ful fast. With As, 1. 335, on the contrary, " The joung 
tre na better sped." 

667, 668. was, standes. Other examples of the commingling of the preterite 
and the historical present are furnished by 11. 821 f., 828 f., 998-999, 1009-1010, 
1123 f., 1134-1135, 1365 f., 1456 f., 1470 f., 1598 f-, 1838-1839, 1942 f., etc. 

668. maister. The same word is used in O. F. ; see L (A*), p. 13: ".i. petit 
piniaus d'unes des maistres racines." 

677. aid [tre]. The reading of C here is perhaps admissible, but the reading 
of R, though less rhythmical, suits the context better; and R has the support 
of A, 1. 617 : "And, for the elde tre is so i- hewed." 

687. so mot I the. Repeated in 11. 1153, 1447, 1571, 1612, 2117, 3014, 3022, 
3059, 3309. On its frequency in M. E. verse, see Zupitza's note ,to Gjty of War- 
tuick (B), 1. 615. Zupitza records seventeen instances of it in Guy of Warwick. 

688. ]?e aid tre bitakens ]7e. As, 1. 355 f., adds that the gardener betokens the 
sages ; F, 1. 434, that the boughs betoken the sages. 

68g. vnto. There appears to be confusion of idiom here, the idea involved in 
bitakens (1. 688) suggesting that of is like in this line, with the consequent adjust- 
ment of preposition. 

699. Bot sertes it sal noght swa. R inserts be after nog/it, which improves 
the line metrically. There are, however, other instances of the omission of the 
infinitive after the auxihary : in 11. 16S0, 1749, 1903, 3275, and 3381. In three 
of these instances (11. 1680, 1749, 3275), the construction is the not uncommon one 
with intransitive verbs of motion (see Matzner, Grammar, II, p. 45 f., and Kellner, 
p. 45), but in the other two instances, as here, the omitted infinitive is clearly 
not a verb of motion. Matzner cites no examples of the latter construction, 
but the Canterbury Tales furnishes at least one example ; see the Mafi of Law's 
Tale, B, 1. 738 : " If ye wol aught " = " If you wish to say anything." 

700. ride and ga. Likewise in 11. 2766 and 3862; see also ride ne go, 1. 11 52, 
and ryde or gane, 1. 3937. On this locution see Kolbing, note to Ipomedon (A), 
1. 1 1 64, and Kittredge, Studies and Notes, I, p. 17. 

723. hailsed. A and B appear to reflect the O. F. here more faithfully than do 
the rest of the MSS. L (A*), p. 15, has: " Diex vos doint bon jor"; A, 1. 666: 
" Deu vous doint bonjour"; B, 1. 652: " Deu vous garde bonjour." 



158 NOTES 

738. pe deuil of hel I 5OW biteche ! One of the "literary commonplaces " fre- 
quently encountered in M. E. verse ; see Kittredge, Studies and Notes, I, p. 49. 

744. to safe goure grace. The N.E.D. cites no example of this form of the 
common expletive, save yotir grace. It occurs again, however, in this text in 1. 2398. 

749. hand-haueing. The present participle in -iug appears only here and in 
1. 1563 (Jiand-haiieiitg : nothing). The word hand-haueing had probably lost its 
participial value. 

752, 753. Peculiar to this redaction. 

753. For paire bolt es ful sone shot. For comments on this proverb, see Kit- 
tredge, Studies and Notes, I, p. 27 ; and Skeat, note on Parlement of Fonles, 1. 574 
(^Complete Works of Chaucer, I, p. 523). 

J»aire. Imperfectly adjusted to its antecedent. Other instances of faulty refer- 
ence are found in 11. 1353, 1697, and 2307. 

755. Here F introduces ///Z'^/zj-, canis becoming the eighth tale in that MS. 

775 f. For certain variations among the different versions of The Seven Sages, 
in the telling of canis, and for sundry derivatives and analogues of the story, see 
the Introduction, pp. Ixxviii f. 

776. a day of pe Trinite. So A, E, B, and L (A*) ; D : in May ; D* : " une feste 
solonnelle a Penthecostes." 

782. grehownde. According to H the knight had also a pet falcon. This bird 
plays a prominent part in the story : it is the first to spy the serpent, the dog hav- 
ing fallen asleep ; it awakes the dog and puts him on his guard by flapping its 
wings. 

788. A faire childe. D, 1. 730, adds that the child was twelve months old. 

789. thre norices. D, 1. 754: two nurses; As, 1. 447: one nurse; all other 
MSS., as C. There is no mention of the nurses in the Welsh version and the 
Dolopathos, nor in the Eastern versions. 

804. lay. Hardly with the value of lay, reclined ; but rather, remained, had a 
position. So also, probably, in 1. 3333. See N. E. D., Lie, 4. 

805. vice. O. F. vis, viz, a winding stair; here perhaps the landing at the 
head of such a stair. 

811. J>e childe ... it. See note to 1. 129 f. 

837. stulpes. O. N. stolpi, a post. Here the posts (or upright extensions of 
the legs) of a cradle. A rare word, the lexicons citing only two examples of it : 
from Palladius on Husbondrie, I, 1. 1054, and Pro7npt. Parv., p. 481. 

840. Buth. The MS. seems to read bitth, the stroke of the t extending farther 
to the left than usual. R has Both. The spelling buth occurs nowhere else, 
either in C or R; and it is not unlikely, I think, that it is due here to scribal error. 

857 f. Here, as often in the poem, the style is exceedingly broken and choppy; 
see, in particular, 11. 3679 f. 

863. pe lady oft in swown gan fall. On the frequency of swooning in the 
mediaeval romances, see Mead, note to Sqiiyr of Lotve Degre, 1. 90. 

865. Alias . . . pat I was born ! For other examples of this formula, see 
Mead, note to Squyr of Lowe Degre, 1. 68, and Zupitza, note to Athelston, 1. 387. 

871. what J?am was. That is, "what was to pay with them." 



NOTES 



159 



886. in sonder lie him slittes. In the O. F. versions he cuts off the dog's 
head; so also m As, 1. 473. A and D, however, fall in with C. Other M. E. MSS. 
are either silent or fragmentary here. 

920 f. There is much variation as to the kind of penance done. A, E, and B are 
in accord with C. According to L (A*), p. 2 1 , and D*, p. 9, the knight goes into exile ; 
according to As, 1. 484, and H, p. 18, to the Holy Land. According to D, 1. 882 f., 
he goes into his orchard, to a fish pool, leaps in, and sinks to the bottom. 
940. Cf. 1. 212S : " To trow hir wordes atid leue J^e wise." 

949. Whannow. Also in 11. 1603 and 2141. Not recorded in the dictionaries. 
I take it to be an agglutinated form of what now. 

963. here by west. Though this appears in all the M. E. MSS. except Ar, D, 
and F, the first of which is fragmentary here, while the other two are independent, 
there is nothing corresponding to it in any of the O. F. MSS. that have been pub- 
lished. With the Welsh version the scene of the story is "a forest in France." 
The phrase here is probably " merely formal " ; see Hall's note to Kiiig Horn, 1. 5. 
963 f. For a summary of the variations among the different versions of The 
Seven Sages in the telling of aper, and for a list of the analogues of the story, see 
the Introduction, pp. l.xxxii f. 

F abridges aper and other^\'ise alters it extensively. With F (11. 606-633) ^^^ 
story runs as follows : 

Hyt was a swynherde yn })ys cu«tre, 

And kepte svvyne grete plente. 

So on a day he fayled a boor, 

And be-gan to morne and syke sore ; 

He durste not go home to hys mete 

For drede hys maystyrs wolde hy;« bete. 

He clambe hye vpon a tree, 

And akcorns for hunger ete he. 

Then was \,ey a boor yn \>at foreste 

That was a wondz/r vylous beste ; 

And comyth rennyng to the tree, 

And fonde akcorns failed gret^ plente, 

And ete of \>e. akcorns swythe faste, 

And leyde hym down at the laste. 

The swynherde, Jj^t was yn the tree, 

Wyste not whodur he myght flee, 

That nye hym-selfe he waxe all madd 

For thoght ajid sykyng that he had. 

Then the swynherde hym be-thoght 

To be-gyld \>e best, yf \>at he moght ; 

And clambe down fro bogh to bogh 

Tyll he myght reche he boor well ynogh. 

He clawed he boor on the bakk, 

And full well lykud he that ; 

He thoght hat he clawed so swete 

That at the laste he felle a-slepe. 

Then \<e swynherde toke owt a knyf smert, 

And smote the boor to the herte. 



l60 NOTES 

968. In H the king of the country offers his daughter and the succession to 
his throne to any one who will kill the boar. A similar offer is made in vatici- 
nium (all versions) to any one that shall interpret the actions of the three ravens. 

972. The infinitive, a verb of motion, is omitted here, as in 11. 1680, 1749, 
3275; see note to 1. 699. 

975. Bifel J?us. See note to 1. 68. 

981. hode. L (A*) reads: "ses girons " ; and, in like manner. A, E, and B: 
barm, or lap. The hood w-as sometimes thrown back so as to hang down from 
the shoulders (see N. E. D. under Hood). 

985, 986. high : negh. Apparently an imperfect rhyme, but probably not so 
in reality. The spelling heghest occurs in 1. 3984, and the noun derived from 
high is spelled heght in 1. 2527. See note to 11. 229-230. 

987. ferly fone. L (A*), p. 23 : " II ne pot autretant trover des ahes comme 
il soloit faire devant"; A, E, B, D* : he can find none; F, 1. 618: "fonde akcorns 
failed gr^te plente." 

988. Forby he was won to done. That is, in comparison with what he was 
accustomed to find. The relative is omitted also in 11. 2533, 3433, 3630, and 3821. 
See Kellner, pp. 61 f., 315. 

992. buskes. Apparently with the meaning of "clumps," "grassy or bushy 
clods," " tufts of sod." 

1008. An unusually clumsy line. R omits hand, and so reads perfectly. It is 
probable that the scribe of C erroneously inserted hand under the influence of 
hand in the preceding line. 

1028. with sorow ! Professor Kittredge reminds me that the phrase is a 
common M. E. curse. 

1041. With the line corresponding to this the text of the Arundel MS. (Ar) 
begins. 

1059. And. One of the four instances in C in which the word is spelled out. 
See note to 1. 2. 

1081, 1082. "You should not slay your son on that account unless you knew 
he deserved to be slain." Worthi is similarly used in 1. 2536. 

1086. Ypocrase. The celebrated physician, Hippocrates, 480 B.C. to about 
357 B.C. It is barely possible that medicits grew out of the story (perhaps apoc- 
ryphal) of Hippocrates's diagnosis of the case of Perdiccas II, king of Mace- 
donia, who had invited him to his court. Hippocrates discovered by certain 
external symptoms, so the tradition goes, that the king's illness had been caused 
by his having fallen in love with his father's concubine. See W. A. Greenhill in 
Smith's Dictionary. — Hippocrates also figures in Lonelich's Holy Grail, chapters 
35-37, E. E. T. S., Ex. Sen, XXVIII, pp. 17-40, and is often mentioned in M. E. 
literature. 

1087. neuow. According to H, named Galen. 

iioi f. For a digest of the peculiar features of the different versions of medi- 
ciis and for the discussion of some analogues of the story, see the Introduction, 
pp. Ixxxiv f. 

1103-1104. slike ; like. The same rhyme occurs in 11. 3443-3444 and 3587-3588. 



NOTES l6l 

1107. D, in accord with a convention of ancient and media£val story (see, for 
instance, Beowulf, 1. 2184 f., and the Sir Perceval legend), has it that for a long 
time in his youth the nephew had appeared to be very dull. 

1122. florines. For the history of the florin, see N.E.D. s.v.\ Skeat's notes 
to Piers PL, C, III, 1. 157, and IV, 1. 47 ; Kaluza's note to Lib. Desc, 1. 1046; and 
Mead's note to Squyr of Lotve Degre, 1. 243. R re^ids forance, thus furnishing an 
example of the use of the word fifty years earlier than the first example cited by 
the N. E. D. 

1 131. Wen. See note to 1. 28. 

1 135. syn, sinew, A and F reading senewe and senows respectively. The dic- 
tionaries record no other example of a monosyllabic form of the word in English ; 
but the form sin appears in O. N. and O, Fries. 

1 146. On al manere wit bus me. "In every way it behooves me to know." 
See, for a similar use of the infinitive with bus, 1. 3476. 

1153. See notes to 11. 3022 and 10. 

1168. in Auerell. The phrase is found only in Y; in which it is constant. 

1 169. pe Eril of Nauern. So, with slight variations, the rest of the M. E. MSS. 
L (A*), however, has : " li quens de namur " ; D* : " roy de Frise " ; and H : " dux 
de Burgundia." N'avern is frequently met with in the M. E. romances. It is 
a variant of Navarre ; see Huo7i of Burdeux, E. E. T. S., Ex. Ser., XLIII, p. 632 
and passim, where it is closely associated with Aragon ; see also Minot's Poems, 
iv, 1. 70 (ed. Hall, Oxford, 18S7, p. 13), and Hall's note on the line (I.e., p. 57). 

1 1 78. I prai pe \aX no man weten. The infinitive, weten, has no governing 
verb. Instead of J>at four MSS. have let, which was doubtless the original read- 
ing; see A, 1. 1090: "let no man wite " ; Ar, 1. 150: "late no man t)at i-wete " ; 
E, 1. 1094: " lete no man hyt wete"; F, 1. 1555: "let no man hyt wete." 

1 184. beres fless. Peculiar to C and R. L (A*), p. 27 : "char debuef " ; and so, 
in effect. A, Ar, E, B, and F. 

bro. So A and B. E substitutes blood, and H aquam. The O. F. versions are 
silent. 

1 189. with wyne. So also F, 1. 1575. Other passages in which F and C unite 
in differing from other MSS. are 11. 3077-3078, 3099-3100, 3159, 3213-3214, 3339- 
3340, 3488, 4060, 4063-4064, 4073-4074, 4209. In four of these instances — 3099- 
3100, 3488, 4060, and 4063-4064 — F and C are faithful to the O. F. 

1192-1193. gaf him . . . Vnto ]?e leche. An awkward reduplication of the 
object, avoided by all the other MSS. save A (11. 1 098-1099) and F (11. 1567-1568). 
See Matzner, Grammar, II, p. 19. 

1193. siluerandgolde. Ar, 1. 159: "A wer-hors i-charged w/t/^ silu^r«Wgold." 

1207. Son. So also A; E, B, Ar, and F, however, read: "on the third day." 
The O. F. versions are silent. 

1207 f. In D* this episode is placed just after the tun episode. 

1224 A, Ar, E, F, D, L (A*), D*, and H add here that he also burned his books, 
which is perhaps a reminiscence of the fable according to which Hippocrates 
burned the books at Cos which were under his charge as librarian, his purpose 
being to conceal the use he had made of them in his own books. 



l62 NOTES 

1243. fele. Ar, E, B, F, L (A*), and H: "in a hundred places." 

1265. slas. R has sla. Other instances in which R uses the subjunctive where 
C has the indicative occur in 11. 1654, 1862, 1869, 2513, 2545, 2967, 3034, 3162. 
In 1. 1549 R uses the indicative where C has the subjunctive. 

1267. do him alegance. "That is, give him relief," "suspend the judgment 
you have passed against him." See iV. E. D. under Allege, v^. 

1274. Wepid. The subject is omitted, as in 1. 3630. Such an omission seems 
violent to the Mod. Eng. ear, but examples are common in the best M. E. 
verse; see the "Prologue" to the Cant. Tales, 11. 33, 600, and 811. See also 
Macaulay's note to Conf. Amant., Bk. I, 1. 1895, ^^^ Zupitza's note to Guy of 
Warwick (B), 1. ic. 

1279, 1280. These lines are omitted by R. That the omission is arbitrary is 
shown by their appearing in A (11. 1189-1190), Ar (11. 253-254), E (11. 1195-1196), 
and B (11. 1 177-1178), where the same rhymes occur as in C. For another arbitrary 
omission by R, see 11. 2843-2844. For a couplet arbitrarily added by R, see note 
to 1. 2364. 

1302. what was he ^pa^. ? I am not sure what this means. The context 
seems to call for the interpretation, " who (or, what sort of fellow) was he that 
did so ? " a question with the value of a request for the telling of the story sug- 
gested in the lines preceding, pat appears to be merely a bit of pleonasm 
employed, despite the violence it involves, to meet the exigency of the rhyme. 

131 1 f. For a summary of the peculiar features of the different versions oi gaza, 
and for a list of the originals and analogues of the story, with a discussion thereof, 
see the Introduction, pp. Ixxxv f. 

1316. Octouian. The romance of Octavia7i is well known; the M. E. versions 
have been published by Weber, Metrical Romances, III, p. 157 f . ; Halliwell, 
Percy Soc, No. xiv ; and Sarrazin, Altengl. Bibk., III. 

1317. toure. According to A, Ar, E, B, L (A*), D*, named Cressent. This 
tower also appears in some versions of Roma; see note to 1. 31 21. The name 
Cressent is later given in this text (11. 2147, 2152, etc.) to Crassus; see note to 
1. 2147. 

1318. his tresoure. Mention is made of the wealth of Octavian in William of 
Malmesbury's Chronicle (tr. Giles, p. 178). It is also referred to in Conf. Amant., 
Bk. V, 1. 4731 ; Macaulay {Conf Amant., II, p. 502), in a note on this line, 
observes that " The treasures of Octovien (or Octavian) were proverbial," and 
cites, in evidence of this, Rom. de Troie, 11. 1684 f. and 28594 f. 

1319. was. For other examples of was with a plural subject, see note to 1. 542. 
klerkes twa. A, Ar, E, and B add, with the support of L (A*) and D*, that 

there had formerly been seven clerks, five of whom had gone to some other 
country. 

1320. A liberal man. L (A*), D*, and H add that he had one son and two 
daughters. 

1331. Sir, at sowre will. With L (A*), D*, A, Ar, E, B the son remonstrates 
with the father at first. With H, p. 25, he expressly approves of his father's plan : 
" Ait filius : ' Bonum est consilium. Melius est de thesauro eius accipere, eo quod 



NOTES 163 

in omnibus habundat, quam hereditatem nostram vendere, et ego cum sororibus 
meis semper in miseria permanere.' " 

1336. Jje fader went in. A, Ar, E, and B, in agreement with L (A*), p. 30, 
report that both father and son went in. 

1335-1342. Peculiar to this redaction. 

1349. he wald tel to na man. According to H, p. 25, he reports to Octavian, 
who rebukes him. 

1353. pam. Other examples of faulty reference are pointed out in the note on 
J>aire, 1. 753. 

1375. smite my heuid. In D*, p. 35, the father foretells the incidents of the 
following day, and instructs the son as to the course he is to pursue. In H, p. 26, 
the son does not demur at all to his father's counsel, but beheads him at once. 
In some of the variants of gaza the idea of beheading the father originates with 
the son, who carries this idea into execution in the face of much remonstrance 
from the father. 

1382. say. This word in the Cotton MS. looks more like aay, but must be 
say, as with R. 

1391. it wald be wer. That is, "it would be the worse for him [the son]," 
"would go hard with him." 

1394. Into ]7e pit ]7e heuid he slang. With this D ends its version oi gaza. 

1404. wont. R inserts luas before rvont, but unnecessarily. See, for example, 
Milton's On the Morning of Christ's A\itiviiy, 1. 10, and Paradise Lost, I, 1. 764; 
V, 1. 123; and VI, 1. 93. 

1427. in pe cheke. A, Ar, E, B, L (A*), D*, H : in the thigh ; F, in the 
hand. 

1445, 1446. ]7e deuil . . . Bot . . . gang ! I take this to mean : " The devil 
hang him if he does n't throw your head into a privy ! " 

Heading p. 49. Prolong. Evidently a variant (traceable to scribal err(?r) of 
prologue (see the forms prolonge, Alexander, ed. Skeat, E. E. T. S., Ex. Sen, 
XLVII, 11. 2730, 5066, and Prolong, Bokenam's Lives of Saints, Altengl. Bibk., 
I, p. 237). Prolong occurs also in the headings to the prologues of the rest of 
the stories. In the headings to the first five prologues the word Proces is used 
instead, though hardly with the same meaning as Prolong ; see note to heading 
p. 20. 

1481. " A, lord," he said. R omits he said, and thus spoils the meter ; but it 
has the support of Ar, 1. 467. 

1496. for hit owin ded sake, "for her own deed's sake"; see note to 1. 193 
for other examples of the uninflected genitive. 

1507 f. For a summary of the peculiar features of the different versions of 
putens, and for a list of the variants and analogues of the story, see the Intro- 
duction, pp. xc f. 

1508. A riche man. According to F, 1. 494 f., he had already wedded two 
wives ; and D, L (A*), and H stress the fact that, though he was an old man, he 
had taken a young wife. 

1520-1526. Peculiar to this redaction. 



l64 NOTES 

1527. ane vsage. D places this detail just before the arrival of the watchman 
(see 1. 1621). 

1534. him. So also in R, although both MSS. have jtam in 11. 1531 and 1535. 

1535. men sal ]7am driue. According to F, 1. 502, they are stoned to death. 
1568. In L (A*), p. 36, she argues in her defense that she had gone out of 

doors because she had been ill ; in D*, p. 19, because of an attack of toothache ; 
in H, p. 21, because her mother, being ill, had sent for her. 

1580. well. In the Welsh version (tr. Jones, p. 652), a fish pond. 

1587, 1588. well : still. See, for other imperfect rhymes, the note to 11. 229-230. 
A, 1. 1472, avoids the difficulty by reading snelle in place of still. 

1621. wakemen. C has wakevian, but }>ai in 11. 1625 and 1627 confirms the 
reading of R, which I have adopted. 

1680. my reson may noght forth. That is, "my judgment does not prevail." 
The infinitive, a verb of motion, is omitted, as in 11. 1680, 1749, and 3275, and in 
the corresponding line in A (1. 1550) : " Mi tale ne mot nowt forth." 

1689 f. For a summary of the peculiar features of the different versions of 
senescalcHs, and for a discussion of the analogues of the stoiy, see the Introduc- 
tion, pp. xci f. 

In H senescalcns is fused with Rotna. In F senescalcns appears to have been 
supplanted by a story otherwise entirely foreign to The Seven Sages. Owing to 
the loss of a leaf of the MS. the conclusion of the story is lacking. The fragment 
which remains is as follows : 

Hyt was a knySt of J^ys centre, 
And a noble-man was he ; 
And he had a sone feyre, 
A godely chylde, schulde be hys heyre. 
The chylde louyd wele spendyng, 
* And ryet yn all thynge ; 

Tauerns and dyces louyd he, 

And horys louyd he grete plente. 

Thus he spendyd all \>ai he myj;t wynne, 

Tyll J)at hys catell waxe all )?ynne. 

He hym bethoght yn all wyse 

How he my St hys fadz/r sle w/t// some queyntyse. 

So hyt befelle vpon a day, 

He feyned hym syke and yn hys bed he lay, 

And seyde \>er was a boor yn Jxrt forest 

That was a wond?<;- vylous beest : 

" Fadur, but yf y haue a brede of hym, 

Y dye fro tho and all my kynne." 

The godemans hert was full sore 

That hys sone schulde dye for )>e brede of a boor. 

He dySt hy;« on a gode palfray, 

And to the wode he went hys way. 

The chylde spekyth vvft// felows iwelfe, 

And the thrdtethe was hym-selfe. 

And mette hys fadur vndi^r a tree. 



NOTES 165 

And assayle hym harde can he. 

He hewe hys fadur very smale, 

All yn pecys, as seyt> ])ys tale ; 

And home he went to bedd ageyn, 

And couyrd hyw warme, hit ys not to leyn. 

The tydyngfi^ come to that cyte ; 

For hym was dole and grete pyte, 

For that noble knyght was sloon. [11. 1053-1085.] 

The Welsh version also substitutes another story for senescalais. In Jones's 
translation (p. 652) this story runs thus: "A man of Rome had a tree with 
sweet fruit, growing in his garden, with a fine straight branch rising from the 
stock of the tree, and reaching to the sky. And if the man held the tree and its 
fruit dear, still dearer was the branch because of its loveliness. Between me and 
God, said the gardener, if thou wouldst follow my advice, thou wouldst order 
the branch to be cut down from off the tree. Why ? said he. Because it is not 
sure whether thou wilt obtain the fruit of the tree, so long as yonder branch is 
a step for one to ascend, and to support evil persons and thieves ; and there 
is no way to climb the tree or get the fruit save by yonder branch. By my 
faith, said he, for all that, none of the branch shall be cut off, any more than 
before. Be it so, said the gardener. And that night thieves came to the tree 
and plundered the tree of its fruit, and left it quite bare, with broken branches, 
by the next morning." — The first half of the story, it will be observed, tracks 
arl'or tolerably closely. The conclusion is probably an invention of the Welsh 
redactor. 

1690. Was a king. See note to 1. 211. 

1691. Poyle and Calaber land. According to L (A*) and D he ruled merely 
over Apulia ; according to D* he was king of Egypt ; according to the Welsh 
version, king of Germany. — Apulia and Calabria, being nearly associated geo- 
graphically, were often referred to together in mediaeval story. 

1691, 1692. Bath Poyle and Calaber land Was. For other instances in which 
7uas is used with a plural subject, see note on 1. 542. 

1693. in luf had he no delite. So L (A*), p. 39 : " II desdaingnoit fame seur 
toutes riens " ; and similarly A and B : "he loved women very little." But Ar, 
1. 652, and E, 1. 1594, report illogically that he had great delight in women. 

1705. medcines. A, Ar, E, L (A*): "barley bread and water." 

1722. Ten pownd. A, Ar, B, L (A*): twenty marks; E: twenty pounds; 
D* : a hundred marks ; the Welsh version : nine marks ; H : a thousand florins. 

1729. l7e steward . . . couaitus. On the covetous steward in mediseval story 
see Mead, Sqiiyr of Loive Degre, p. xxx. 

1749. I mot nedes ]7artill. See note to 1. 699. 

1749, 1750. The logic of this speech is quite worthy of the character into 
whose mouth it is put. 

1765. Except for one word, identical with 1. 2471. See note to 1. 10. 

1766. chamber. The reading of R ; C has chanter, which I take to be a scribal 
error, but the same spelling is found in William of Palerne, 11. 685 and 771. 



l66 NOTES 

1781. it es forth dais. So also Ar, 1. 719, E, 1. 1659, and B, 1. 1677. A, 1. 1629, 
has instead, "hit is dai," the rhyme word corresponding to i/(7i being tuciai. 

1801. According to B, 11. 1691-1696, the king decreed that the steward should 
be put to death by having molten metal poured down his throat (a motif borrowed 
perhaps from Virgiliiis) : 

The kyng bade men shuld hyw lede 

Wz't/z-owt J^e town, in-to a mede. 

And knyt his hond« hym behynde, 

A7id to a poste nakyd hym bynde. 

And melte sy\\\.er and eke lede, 

Atid powre i«-to his mowth till he be dede ; 

And thus )>e styward loste his lyff. 

1802. Thurgh. Dissyllabic apparently ; see note to 1. 222. 

1836. Except for the ordinal, identical with 1. 2782 ; see note to 1. 10. 

1857, 1858. to nyce, For to force. See, for a similar construction, 11. 2395-2396. 

1862. dose. R reads do (see note to 1. 1265), but inconsistently sets thinkes, in 
the next line, in the indicative. 

1868. A line of three stresses, unless old is to be read as two syllables. See 
notes to 11. 84 and 222. 

1877 f. For a summary of the peculiar features of the different versions of 
teniamina, and for certain analogues of the story, see the Introduction, pp. xciii f. 

1877. it was whylum. See note to 1. 31. 

1879. a nobil whife. C seems to be alone in telling of each of the first two 
wives separately. D* and K omit mention of the second wife ; F, D, and H omit 
mention of both the first wife and the second. 

1885. in liking sted. The meaning appears to be: "in a vigorous condition 
of body " (and hence predisposed to a second marriage). Sted is probably a noun, 
since the participle takes the form stad in 1. 984. 

1901. The line is too short. See, for other such lines, the note to 1. 84. 

1903, 1904. litel J^ai mai of preue note, Or els noght. I take this to mean : 
" They (old men) are equal to little, or nothing, of secret enjoyment " (or "sexual 
intercourse"); see A, 11. 1 743-1 744: "Litel thai mai do, withouten gabbe, That 
yong womman wolde habbe"; with which Ar, 11. 843-844, E, 11. 17 79-1 780, and B, 
11. 1793-1794, are in essential agreement. But it is possible that J>ai goes back 
to "^ong tvemen (1. 1901), in which case note is the infinitive and preue a noun 
{^ proofs . 

1907. Hir liked noght his oJ»er spell. That is, " She did not like his talk (his 
empty declarations of love, or his scoldings because of his jealousy) either." 

1910. According to K mother and daughter meet on the occasion of an annual 
feast ; with L (A*) and the Welsh version they meet at the end of the daughter's 
first year of wedded life. 

1918. Aid men er oft ful fell. A line of three stresses (see note to 1. 84) 
unless aid is to be read as a dissyllable (see note to 1. 222). The insertion of sifies 
after (t/? would save the line; see 1. 21 10 : " f^at old men oft sijies er fell"; or it 
may be, as Professor Bright suggests, that aid should be changed to aide. 



NOTES 167 

1922, 1923. moght, mai. The logic of the change in tense does not appear 
to me. 

1924. I have set a colon after this line since it seems that//j of 1. 1921 refers 
forward to 1. 1925 f. 

1929. With D the mother merely suggests that the husband be tested, and 
does not in any case specify the test ; the wife bethinks herself of each of the 
tests after the corresponding conference has been brought to an end. 

I935> 1936. gardinere : fire. For other seemingly imperfect rhymes see note 
on 11. 229-230. Perhaps the rhyme is a reflection of the Kentish original, though 
C interchanges e and i pretty freely ; see, for instance, the rhyme geti7i : wcten 
(11. 1177-117S). A (11. 1765-1766), which has the same rhyme, spells yb-; but Ar 
(11. 865-866), E (11. 1799-1800), B (11. 1813-1814), which also have the same rhyme, 
spell as here. 

1943. WheJ>er pe gardenere wald or noght. In L (A*), K, and H the gardener 
objects to cutting down the tree, and the wife does it herself. The reading here 
is possibly a faint reflection of that detail. 

1977. pi. In R only the first letter of this word remains. After this letter 
there is an erasure of either one or two letters. Perhaps the scribe first wrote t>is, 
then, observing his mistake, proceeded to erase, but erased two letters instead of 
one, and forgot to rectify the mistake. 

1982. According to L (A*) the husband had just returned from the chase. 
She removes his cloak and puts a robe on him. 

1988. on pe ladies barm. With H, p. 38, the dog jumps up on the lady's bed; 
she kills him by throwing him against the walls of her chamber. With L (A*), 
p. 46, the wife subsequently regrets that she had killed the dog. 

2009. A preste. L (A*), p. 47 : "le provoire de ceste vile"; K, 1. 2676: " le 
chapelain, Guillier " ; D*, p. 27 : " Messire Guillaume, le chappellain de la parroisse." 

2012. no. Probably a scribal error for noght, which is the reading of R ; though 
710 with the value of not does sometimes occur in M. E., — as in William of Palerne, 
11. 67, 85, 127, etc. ; and Ipoinadon (A), 1. 24. 

2019. anoper gyn. F (11. 761-788) inserts another test before the final test: the 
killing of the husband's hawk. 

2026. ett. This unusual form of ete appears also in 11. 2038, 2861, 3566, and 
3580 ; in 1. 2038 it rhymes with set. 

2032. A grete feste. D*, p. 27 : " la feste de la Toussains." With F the feast 
is in honor of the relatives of husband and wife. 

2033. What helpes to mak lang tale. The stress on the inflectional syllable 
of helpes is clumsy, though it is not without parallels (see 11. 793, 2360, and 3125). 
The difficulty might be avoided either by emending lang to Linger (see the cor- 
responding line in B (1. 191 7) : " What nedy)) to make lengar tale "), or by insert- 
ing it before to (see a list of parallel expressions by Kittredge in Studies and Notes, 
I, p. 24 f., in which a majority of the closest parallels to this line insert an object 
after the verb). 

2037. Onnence. See N". E. D. under Anenf. The meaning here appears to be 
by the side of. 



l68 NOTES 

2038. According to F he calls in at this juncture some minstrels for the enter- 
tainment of his guests. 

2042. stirt oway. According to F her excuse for leaving the table is to get 
some wine ; with H, to get a knife ; with L (A*), to get her husband's knife and 
his chessboard. 

2053. on }>e morn. D: on the night of the feast. D is also independent in sub- 
stituting for the barber a brother of the husband. 

2062. pe thrid time thrawes best. This I take to mean : " the third time 
throws best," "the third throw is the luckiest"; with which compare the sayings, 
"the third time's the charm," "the third time tells the tale," "the third time 
never fails." Another form of the proverb is, as Professor Kittredge suggests, 
"the third pays for all" {Twelfth Night, V, i, 40), "the third payes home" 
{Mirror for Magistrates, ed. Haslewood, I, p. 68). 

2080. Elsewhere it is said explicitly that both arms were bled. C implies this 
in the v^ox^. first, but nowhere says so explicitly. 

2091-2094. These lines, though nothing corresponding to them is found in the 
O.F. versions, appear also in A, Ar, E, and B. 

2105. mi dede . . . es neste. "My death is next," "The next time he will 
take my life." 

2106-2108. This detail is omitted by D, L (A*), and D*, but it appears in A, Ar, 
E, B, and H. 

21 1 1, 21 12. Omitted by D and the continental versions. 

21 16. thrinfalde. Cf. hriti {Jiritine, thrynne) (O.N. J^riujir), which usually 
means threefold, but which means three in Havelok, 11. 716, 761, 1977, and 2091, 
and in Gawayne atid the Green Knight, 1. 1868. 

2133. borowd, i.e., "redeemed," "set free"; s,&e N. E. D. MXi^&x Borrow, 4. 

Heading p. 73. Neghend. This ordinal appears only here and in heading 
p. 74, and in both places it is abbreviated. The spelling I have adopted is that 
of the Pricke of Conscience, 1. 3988. 

2143. aght. See Einenkel, Mittelengl. Syntax, p. 116, and 'K.itiredge, Studies 
and Notes, III, p. 321, for examples of the impersonal use of this verb in Chaucer. 
See also van der Gaaf, I.e., pp. 146-148, for sundry other examples, together with 
a suggestion as to the origin of the construction. 

2144. thinges pat me es. See notes to 11. 2280 and 3527. Er is the regular 
pres. plu. form; see 11. 43, 363, 850, 1414, 1794, 1918, etc. Es (Js) is also some- 
times used with a plural subject in the Cursor Mnndi, the Pricke of Conscience, 
Ywain and Gazuain, and other Northern texts ; see Rodeffer, Ittflection of the 
Pres. Plu. Ind., pp. 40, 43, 46, 48, 52, 58, and Kellner, p. 48. For examples of 
was used with a plural subject, see note to 1. 542. 

2146. trowes. As pointed out in the note to 1. 151, the pres. plu. ind. is invariably 
uninflected when it comes in direct contact with a personal pronoun subject. Here, 
however, the verb is not in direct contact with its subject, and hence is inflected ; see 
Rodeffer, I.e., p. 61 f. and passim. Another example is furnished by takes, 1. 3982. 

2147. Cressent. A variant of Crassus, which is the reading of L (A*) and E; 
A and B have Cressus, and Ar Carfyits or Carfzis. The name Cressent is given to 



NOTES 169 

the tower of Octavian in gaza^ and, in some versions, to the tower in Roma ; see 
the notes to 11. 131 7 and 31 21. 

2159 f. For a digest of the chief variations of the different versions of Virgiliiis, 
and for a list of analogues, with a discussion of their source and interrelation, 
see the Introduction, pp. xciv f. 

In F Virgilius is supplanted by a pointless story, which, after Halliwell (in his 
brief description of F, Thornton Romances, p. xliv), I call "The Squire and his 
Borrow." This story, like the story substituted for senescalcus (see note to 1. 16S9), 
is peculiar to F. It runs as follows : 

Hyt was a squyer of thys contra, 
And full wel-belouyd was he; 
Yn dedys of armys and yn justyng 
He bare hym beste yn hys begynnyng. 
So hyt befelle he had a systur sone, 
That for syluyr he had nome ; 
He was put yn preson strong. 
And schulde be dampned and be hong. 
The squyer faste thedur can gon, 
And askyd them swythe anon 
What I'yng he had borne a-way ; 
And they answeryd atid can say, 
He had stolen syluyr grete plente, 
Therfore hangyd schulde he bee. 
The squyer hym profurd, permafay, 
To be hys borowe tyll a certen day, 
For to amende that he mysdede. 
Anon they toke hym yn that stede, 
And bounde hym faste fote and honde, 
And caste hym yn-to preson stronge ; 
They let hys cosyn go a-way. 
To quyte hym be a certen day. 
Grete pathes then vsed he. 
And men he slewe grete plente; 
Moche he stale a7id bare a-way, 
And stroyed the contre nyght and day : 
But vpon |)e squyer hoght he nothyng. 
That he yn preson lafte lyeng. 
So that tyme came, as y yow say. 
But for the squyer came no paye : 
He was hanged on a galowe tree. 
For hym was dole and grete pyte. 
When the noble squyer was slon ; 
For hym morned many oon. 
That oAiir robbyd and stale moche hyng, 
And sethyn was hangyd at hys endyng. [11. 1114-1149] 

2160. Virgil. D substitutes Merlin for Virgil. 

2163. He made a fire. See, for the history of this detail, p. xciv. 



I/O NOTES 

2163-2194. The whole of this first episode, which I have characterized in my 
discussion of the analogues of the story as Virgilius /, is omitted by D. H, p. 42 f., 
describes first the images of Virgilius II, then takes up the fire, etc., and later 
returns to the episode connected with the images of Virgilius II. 

2164. on J7e pauement. According to A and At, in the market-place {chepiiig). 

2168. See, for other lines of three stresses, the note to 1. 84. 

2177. on brede, " over a wide surface," " very legibly." 

2181. Identical with 1. 631. See note to 1. 3. 

2182. a Lumbard. According to L (A*) he was studying at Rome; K and D* 
have instead of the Lombard a Carthaginian bishop. 

2198 f. L (A*), p. 51, omits these two images, but they appear in K, D*, and H. 
H, perhaps under the influence of the Gesta Romanoruni, reports the first part of 
Virgilius II not as do other versions of 7he Seven Sages, but according to the 
version of Alexander Neckam ; see H, p. 42 : " Arte sua magica quandam turrem 
construxit et in summitate turris in circuitu tot ymagines, quot essent in mundo 
prouincie. In medio vnam ymaginem fecerat, que pomum aureum in manu sua 
tenebat. Quelibet imago campanellam in manu sua tenebat ; quelibet imago pro- 
priam faciem ad prouinciam ei assignatam vertebat. Et quocienscumque aliqua 
prouincia volebat contra ciuitatem romanam se opponere ac rebellare, ilia ymago 
illi prouincie assignata campanam pulsabat. Tunc omnes alie imagines eciam 
pulsabant. Romani hoc audientes se armabant et ad illam prouinciam domandam 
toto conamine pergebant et humiliabant, ita quod nulla prouincia non poterat 
tam priuate ac discrete se de Romanis vindicare, quin per ymagines turris Romani 
essent premuniti." 

2204. with pe ball pe childer plaide. With K and D*, they toss the ball at a 
certain time every Saturday. 

2209. A merure. The famous Salvatio Romae. Tradition has it that this mirror 
was to be seen at Florence as late as the seventeenth century ; see G. Naude, 
Apologie pour tons les grands Personnages, Paris, 1625, p. 627. According to 
another story it was, at about the same time, among the treasures of the Abbey 
of St. Denis in France ; see J. F. Doublet, Histoire de VAbbaye de S. Denys, 
Paris, 1625, p. 347. 

2211. ere. An error in concord made probably for the sake of the rhyme; 
perhaps, however, by attraction, or by an adjustment to the notion of plurality 
inhering in ilk. See note to 1. 123 ; also 1. 2307, where ilka man appears as ante- 
cedent oi }>aire. Or is ere, as Professor Bright queries, a scribal error for were? 

2215. ]?e king of Poyl. So also A, Ar, E, B, and L (A*) ; K and D* have 
instead the king of Hungary ; H, merely three kings. 

2227. Twa clerkes. L (A*), p. 51 : ".iii. bachelers qui frere estoient,"but later 
(p. 52) : " li deus freres." A, Ar, E, B, D : two brothers ; K and D* : four sages ; 
H : four knights. 

2231. )?ain, i.e., the two coffers. 

2234. at J»e west sate, etc. D : in " lyttyl pyttys twaye " ; L (A*) : at each of 
the three gates of the city ; K : in three ditches ; D* : one in a deep ditch, and 
three others at as many crossings. 



NOTES 



171 



2236. ]7at thoght wele what sold forjjer fall. " Who knew well what else 
would happen." /hit refers to the i-iva clerkes. 

2253. rest. In other versions they report that they learn of the whereabouts 
of the treasure in a dream. 

2262. J7is vowche we safe. " This we present to you " ; see Century Diction- 
ary under vmtchsa/e /, 2. 

2263. ]?an. It is barely possible that the MS. reading, /«/, is correct, but the 
context gives the very strongest support to ken, which is the reading of R. 

2280. Es. I take this to be a singular, the compound subject being conceived 
of as a unity. But es is used with a plural subject at least once; see note to 
1. 2144. And 'cuas is several times used with a plural subject ; see note to 1. 542. 

2281, 2282. In al Poyl, etc. H, p. 44: " tantum . . . quod omnes equi romani 
non portarent"; similarly L (A*), p. 52 : "si grant que a poine le porroient trere 
tuit li cheval de vostre cort " ; D*, p. 43 : " tresor tel que oncques Ottovien ne 
Nabugodonosor n'avoient eu la pareil." 

2294. Els, " provided that." See N. E. D. under Else^ 5, where attention is 
called to the similar use of aiiders in German. 

2307. ]7aire. For other instances of faulty reference, see note to 1. 753. See 
also note to 1. 221 1. 

2311. if, apparently with the meaning of although. 

2313. With D*, many people were killed ; and with K, thirty houses were destroyed. 

2321, 2322. brend : assent. Apparently an ine.xact rhyme (see note to 11. 229-230 
for others) ; but perhaps not really inexact : see the spelling bre7it, 1. 2133, and cf. 
Morris, Pricke of Conscience, p. xxix : " In Hampole Jtidith rhymes with tvritt, but 
what is still more curious is that David rhymes with Judith. It would thus appear 
that </at the end of words was pronounced as /." See also the note to 11. 2541-2542. 

2329 f. L (A*), p. 54 : " Si prannent or fondu, et li coulent par mi la bouche, et 
par mi les eulz, et par mi les orilles, par mi le nez ; si li distrent : Or vosis, or 
convoitas, or auras, et d'or morras." According to D, 1. 2064 f., they pour pow- 
dered gold into his eye-sockets and into ears, nose, etc. 

2343. glose. Perhaps to be explained as a contract form, perhaps as due to 
Midland influence, perhaps as an uninflected form with relative subject (see 
Rodeffer, I.e., pp. 39, 41, 43, 56), but probably as an uninflected form abbreviated 
in the interest of the rhyme. 

2345. The MS. reads : " And \>o\x wil mak him )jat J>ine ar^," which makes non- 
sense. I have stricken out i>at (though it appears also in R), and have changed 
are to ayre (the reading of R). See A, 11. 2157-2158: 

And desire to make thin air, 
He that sschall the schende vair ; 



Ar, 11. 1 257- 1 258: 
and E, 11. 2 183-2 184: 



And desiren to make l^yne eyer^ 

Of him \>a\. schall J^e bryng to wykyd spare ; 

And Jni desyrest thyne ayre to make 
That shalle done the moche wrake. 



172 NOTES 

2346. payre, impair, injure. See N. E. D. under Pair and Appair. The word 
in this aphetic form appears three times in Piers the Plozuman, and a score of 
times in its full form ; see Skeat's glossary to his edition. 

2360. The accent upon the second syllable of thanked is violent. See note to 
1- 2033. 

2364. After this line R inserts, without the support of any other MS., the fol- 
lowing couplet : 

His turmentoure sone gert he call, 
And fech his son into Jie hall. 

2368. Identical with 1. 3178, except that the noun in that line is plural. See 
note to 1. 10. 

2395, 2396. Similarly 11. 1S57-1858: "made my son to nyce. For to force." 

2398. To saue sowre grace. See note to 1. 744. 

2411 f. For the features peculiar to avis in the Book of Sindihdd and in the 
different versions of The Seven Sages of Rome, with a discussion of the analogues 
of the story, see the Introduction, pp. xcvii f. 

2412. a burias. In As, at first called Annabill, later Balan. 

2415, 2416. " But she was as women are the world over " (i.e., tricky, faithless). 
For the history and uses of the phrase, vnder hyr gare, see N'. E. D. under Gore, 
and Skeat's notes on the Cant. Tales, A, 11. 3236-3237, and B, 1. 1979. Here the 
phrase is practically an expletive. 

2417. a py. D: "a popinjay." 

2419. in Frankis langwage. L (A*), p. 55: "lalangue romainne " ; As: "in 
Romane leid"; Ar, B: "in Romayns langage." 

2424. ano]?er. According to F, a priest ; with As and D*, a knight ; according 
to K and D* later, "Gerard, le filz Thierry" (see note to 1. 4145). 

2440. Here As inserts two episodes, as follows : 

He entisnt {>an till his paramour ; 
And scantly had bene Jjar ane hour, 
Quhen \>& lord callit at \>& get. 
Wpe fraitlye can Jie lady get 
And left ]pe Vn-^cht gretlie abasit. 
Bot hir moder him \vp has rasit 
And gaf him i« hand ane nakit swerd 
And bad him he suld speik na word 
Bot evynw befor Jie dur stand still, 
Quhill he lord ent^Ht at his will. 
The lord eniers and saw him stand 
Sa with ane nakit swerd in hand. 
He stottit sumthing and syne couth speir : 
" Quhat art how })us \>2Lt standes heir ? " 
Bot he spak na word mar nor myn. 
Than said hir moder : " Sonw, mak na dyn«. 
Thre kny<r/;<es to sla has chasit his man 
And for girth come he bidder ))an. 



NOTES 173 

And we haf savit him as we may, 
Quhill we trow J^aj be gane away. 
3ongates he stude, for he rvocht wist, 
Bot Je had bene J'aj S'at him mist ; 
He dar not Jit steir for \pe feid. 
And jjus he savit js Jit fra deid." 
The lord said J)an : " Jn all, j se, 
3e haf done l>ar gret cherite. 
And Jiarfor hartfully thank j Sow. 
And j sail fande to kepe \\im now ; 
For -fiith me sail he sit one-ane, 
Quhill he be seker his fais ar^ gane." 
And gart \\\m sit wzM hi?« xycht \>z.x 
And maid gud cheir and mery fair. 
The pyot, Jiat J'e manw knewe, 
Scho sesit hir sang and maid na glewe. 

The \iw'jcht geid hame Jian at j^e last. 

The burgess till his pyot past. 
Said : " My deir bird, quhat alis l^e, 

That synges nocht quhew [jow seis me ? " 

Scho said : " J se )ij scaith sa ryf ; 

§one aid carling and )?j owne wyf, 

Sa fowlely J^aj Jie begyle 

That j may no\>er ane syng nor smyle." 

The hale process scho him tald. 

How he him has maid cukkald. 

Quhilk gretly grevit has Balane, 

And mawnasing he maid him }>an£ 

Unto his wyf. Bot scho pertly 

Denyit and swor opynly. 

That J)aj suld neui;r be but baile, 

Quhill he trowit ^e pyotes tale ; 

Bot he suld sone knawe sekerly 

The gret lesinges of l^at falss py. 

Hir wordes be burgess sumthing trowit; 

And sone efter quhar he had wowit, 

In pilgrimage is passit Balan. 

Than scho sone send for hir lewman, 

And maide him feist atid mery cheir; 

Thar was na danteis \>?a7n to deir, 

Bot gret blythness and costly meit ; 

And I'e pilgryme all quyte forget. 

Neucrjieless, \n J^e myddes of )'e fest, 

Quhen at Jaj trowit alll^ar lest, 

Balan at his awne Jet couth call ; 

Bot J)an \>z] war astonait all. 

The 'knychi was hid with litill dynw. 

Syne was ]>& burgess lattin jn ; 
He said : " Gar grath my bed to ly 
To rest, for trewly tyr?t am j." 



174 NOTES 

Than witless was his wyf allmast. 

Hir moder said: " Douchter, haf na liast 

To mak his bed, quhill he haf sene 

His newe maid schete ws twa betwene." 

Than of }>e scheit scho Hftit ane nuke, 

The douchter wp a.ne-no]>er tuke, 

And held befor \>e burgess sicht, 

Quhill quyte owtchapit was jje knyc/^t. 

Thus clene begylit was Balan, 

And S't 1)6 wyf he thankit J>an, 

That \>a.} couth mak hi;« sic a claifA. 

Bot )?an Jie moder swor ane aith : 

" I haf maid ma of sic as j'is." 

The burgess t>an J?aim baith couth kiss. 

And till his bed he went his way. 

For the source of these two episodes see the Introduction, p. xcviii, note 2. 

2448. vnto chamber. According to D and D* she entertains him in the hall, 
in full view of the bird. 

2449 f. This stratagem is variously reported. The version of L (A*), pp. 56-57, 
is as follows : " Quant il fu anuitie, ele prant sa chamberiere, si li bailie .i. grant 
plomme plein d'eve et .i. cierge tout ardant, et .i. maillet de fust. Quant vint 
vers la mienuit, ele la fet monter sur la meson, ileuc endroit ou la pie estoit ; si 
commance a ferir du maillet sur les essanles; et quant ele avoit assez feru, si 
reprenoit le cierge, le boutoit par entre les essanles, que le clarte en venoit a la 
pie, enmi les eulz. Apres si prenoit le plomme et versoit I'eve sus la pie. Et tele 
vie mena de si au jor; et quant il fu ajornez, si descent, le maillet en sa main, et 
le cierge en I'autre. Li amis a la dame s'en ala." — The maid also figures in A, 
Ar, E, B, As, H, and the Rlischle Siitdbad. D* and K substitute for the maid a 
trusted manservant ; D has instead a boy. — According to As, K, D*, and H one 
of the devices for befooling the bird is the dropping of small sandstones over 
the cage ; with D, another device is the breaking of great blown bladders. 

2473-2476. Peculiar to this redaction. 

2491. Before this line there appears in the MS. the rubricated character which 
is used to indicate paragraph division, but paragraph division here is illogical. 
See note to 1. 17. 

251 1, his mense. With other versions, both English and French, his neighbors. 

2522 f. D abridges the second half of avis, omitting the merchant's discovery 
of the wife's deception and his regret for killing the bird. 

2533. He toke a staf was gude. For other instances of the omitted relative 
see note to 1. 9S8. 

2535. flemed hir. So L (A*), p. 58 : " chace sa fame hors de sa mason." With 
B, he sends her to her paramour ; with K and D*, he puts her to death ; with F, 
the wife and her paramour, a priest, bring the husband to death ; with As and H, 
the husband breaks his spear in three and goes on a pilgrimage to the Holy 
Land. 

2537-2544. Peculiar to this redaction. 



NOTES 



17s 



2541, 2542. R has here the rhyme herd : -erih, which is, however, a perfect 
rhyme perhaps; see note to 11. 2321-2322. 

2562. negh. The MS. has neg/it, a form which I cannot find paralleled and 
which I take to be a scribal error. 

2577. Identical with 1. 3061. See note to 1. 3. 

2579 f. For the characteristic features of the different versions of sapienies, 
and for various analogues of the story, see the Introduction, pp. c f. 

2588. A custume. K and D* reserve the account of this custom until just 
after the king's instructions to the clerks to find a cure for his blindness. 

2595-2600. Peculiar to this redaction. 

2602. With F, the clerks build a treasure-house just above the city's gate. 

2605 f. With K and D*, the king's horse balks at the city gate whenever the 
king attempts to go outside the city; with H, the king becomes blind whenever he 
goes outside his palace, but he regains his sight on his return to the palace ; with 
L, in like manner apparently, Herod is blind only so long as he remains outside 
the city. With the Welsh version, the king's blindness is occasioned, so he 
dreams, by sparks from a caldron ; see p. 657 of the translation : " Each night the 
king saw in his sleep a cauldron with seven feet and vapor rising therefrom, just 
as though there had been a mighty fire beneath ; and sparks, it seemed to him, 
came from them about his eyes and blinded him, as he thought." 

2607. a. R reads any, and is supported by Ar, 1. 1481 ; but C has the support 
of B, 1. 2451. In either case the rhythm is bad. 

2609. asked J>am. With F, 11. 1326 f., he threatens to hang them unless they 
will account for his malady. 

2611. four skore. The original reading of the MS. has been imperfectly 
erased, and the space has been filled in with what I take to be foia- skore; four 
is quite legible, as also the re of skore. This reading, how'ever, is unique. Ar 
(1. 1485), E (1. 2413), and B (1. 2455) read, with R, seuen ; A (1. 2363) has foiirteii ; 
F (1. 1336) has xii. ; L (A*) (p. 59) has viii. ; and D* (p. 21) has xv. According to 
1. 2633 the clerks go in search of Merlin for foiirteen days, which would seem to 
lend some support to the reading of A, but, obviously enough, it does not neces- 
sitate that reading. 

2619. sone efter. According to B, two days after. 

2630 f. D omits the search for Merlin. D* retains the episode, but alters it 
considerably; see pp. 21, 22 of that version. 

2631-2634. Apparently peculiar to this redaction. 

2635 f. In the introduction to his edition of Artliour and Merlin {Altengl. 
Bibk. IV), p. civ, Kolbing pointed out a resemblance between the lines corre- 
sponding to these in A (11. 2389 f.) and a passage in Arthoiir and Merlin. This 
passage (11. 1 195 f.) is as follows : 

On a day, as ich Sou telle, 
po ich Jire sechers snelle, 
pat were ysent fram J)e king. 
To hauen of \>\% child findeing, 
Comen al J>re bi cas 



176 NOTES 

In-to })e toun i>er Merlin was, 
Merlin in \>e strete J^o pleyd, 
And on of his felawes him trayd, 
pat him seyd loude to: 
" Foule schrewe, fram ous go : 
pou art al biSeten amis, 
pou nost who \>i fader is, 
Ac some deuel, as ich wene, 
pe bigat, ous euer to tene ! " 

On the strength of the resemblances between this passage and parts of A, and 
because of certain agreements in phraseology and rhyme Kolbing {/.c, pp. Ix f., 
Ixxxii), inclined to the belief that A and the Auchinleck version of Arthoiir and 
Merlin were by the same author; but, as I have shown (^A Study of The Se^ien 
Sages, pp. 85 f.), any inferences to be drawn from these agreements must hold all 
but equally well for Ar and for E as for A. 

2638. called him lurdan. Omitted by K and D*. 

2645. Merlyn. K substitutesyifjj-^ for Merlin. 

2650. According to F, Merlin adds that his first counsel to the king will be to 
put the clerks to death. 

2657. With A, Ar, and E, Merlin declines the besant. 

2663. in J>i myding. A, E, B : " in )>i donghel " ; L (A*) : " en mi ton foier " ; K, 
D* : " in the ruins of your house " (recently burned). In the Welsh version the inter- 
pretation of the king's dream is as follows (see Jones's translation, p. 657) : " The 
cauldron that thou seest in thy sleep, betokens this city ; the seven feet [see note 
to 11. 2605 f.] that thou seest are the seven men that govern it, brimming over with 
too much riches and working treason against thee unless they are at once slain." 

2681. So L (A*), p. 60: " li sages em pristrent a lor volante." Other M. E. 
MSS. omit this detail. 

2685. Als. C reads And, which I take to be a scribal error. This view has the 
support of R and the context. The fact that afid is spelled out here whereas 
elsewhere in C (except in 11. 1059, 3289, and 4255) it is abbreviated, and the near- 
ness of another and, also support this view. 

2685 f. With K and D*, he now tells them of the presence of the caldron 
under the emperor's bed. 

2694. couret. See note on 1. 394 for two other instances of medial curled r. 

2700. yowre. Elsewhere in C invariably spelled with a 5. 

2762. According to F, after slaying the masters he dealt out to the poor the 
treasure they had amassed. According to the Welsh version he did not follow 
Merlin's counsel, and consequently was finally put to death by the masters. 

2768. H, p. 34, adds : " Merlinum ad divicias et honores promouit." 

2798. )7arof pe burd think mekil shame. That is, " Of that it behooved 
thee to be much ashamed," " You should be much ashamed of that " ; cf. Ar, 
1. 1673 '■ " P°^ aughtyst, sir, ]>eireoi to schame." Burd is a form of the M. E. pret- 
erite of A. S. gebyrian. For its history, see van der Gaaf, I.e., pp. 4 and 40 f. 
For other M. E. examples, see van der Gaaf, pp. 40-41, and Matzner, Altengl. 



NOTES 



177 



Sprachpr., II, i, p. 371, under bia-eii, biren, bcren. To the citations there given 
should be added An Alphabet of Tales, E. E. T. S., CXXVI, pp. 82, 98, 135, 155, 
156, 165 {biird), and p. 119 (burde). 

281 1 f. For a summary of the chief variations oi vidua in the different versions 
of The Seven Sages, and for a listing and discussion of the numerous variants and 
analogues of the story, see the Introduction, pp. ci f. 

In H vidua is told by the seventh sage rather than by the sixth. The sixth 
sage then tells the story ajnatores, which appears in no other version of The Seven 
Sages of Rome, but originally belonged to the Book of Sindibdd. 

2812. a knight. A, Ar, B, D : a sheriff ; A*, p. 80 : " .i. vicomte en Loherainne" ; 
D*, K : " ung conte de Lorraine " ; the Welsh version : " a sheriff of Lesodonia." 

2813. a ful faire whif. According to F and D* (under the influence, perhaps, 
of tentamina), a young wife. P also has it that the knight had never permitted 
her to go a half mile from him. 

2819. als J7ai plaied. So H, p. 64 : "cum taxillis ludebant." But A*, p. 80: 
" dont il voloit doler .i. boudon" ; K, D* : while he was cutting a stick ; F : while 
paring a pear ; the Welsh version : while he was cutting a spearshaft. 

2820. in hir fynger. A*, p. 80 : " el pouce"; and so also E, B, K, D*. F, H : 
in the hand; A, Ar: "in the wombe." 

2822. With D* and H, he swoons ; with H, she dashes water in his face, where- 
upon he revives somewhat, and has her send for priest and sacraments. He asks 
after a priest also in F. In the Welsh version he stabs himself in the breast. 

2826-2829. An instance of C 's tendency at times to amplify in the interest of 
picturesqueness. Other MSS. that have this detail are quite general, or merely 
assert vaguely that a mass was celebrated before the burial. See note to 1. 3148. 

2827. series, wax candles, or tapers. From O. F. cerge (cirge, cierge), Lat. 
cereus. See N. E. D. under Cierge. 

2830. broght vnder molde. With A*, D*, and D, he was buried outside the 
city (A*, p. 80 : " Li cors fu portez au moustier, dehors la vile, ou il avoit .i. 
cimetiere nouvel "). According to the Welsh version he was buried inside a 
church, and hence there is no mention of the lodge. 

2843, 2844. This couplet R arbitrarily omits. See note to 11. 1 279-1 280. 

2850. hir frendes was ful wa. Was is used with a plural subject in several 
instances (see note to 1. 542); but here I think it most likely that the construction 
is impersonal, the grammatical subject being omitted (see note to 1. 68) and 
frendes being in the dative case. Cf. "so was her wa," 1. 1397; Sir Tristrem, 
1. 2769 : " him was ful wa " ; Amis and Amil., 1. 352 : " }>e is ful wo " ; King Horn 
(C), 11. 115, 116: "Ofte hadde horn beo wo, Ac neure wurs Jjan him was ^o"; 
Chaucer's Book of the Duchesse, 11. 565 and 572 : " me is wo"; and the common 
exclamation, " Woe is me ! " The same construction is perhaps used again in 
1. 3745. See Einenkel, p. 112 f.; Zupitza, note to Guy of Warwick (B), 1. 1251 ; 
and Hall, note to King Horn, 11. 115, 116. 

2862. cried. The MS. has shied, which is, I take it, a scribal error due to 
dittography. Professor Bright suggests, however, that shied may be a scribal error 
for shried, aphetic form of ascry. 



178 NOTES 

2865. outlaws thre. F and H, in accord with many of tlie variants of vidua, 
mention only one robber. So also with the Welsh version at first, but later it 
appears that there were several robbers. All other versions of The Seven Sages 
are in accord with C. 

2871. Ano]?er knyght. With K, named "Gerart le fil guion" ; with D* " Her- 
vieu le filz Guyon." 

2903. Preceded by a rubricated character, but obviously not the beginning of 
a new paragraph. See note to 1. 17. 

2905. me es ful kalde. An interesting impersonal construction. Van der Gaaf 
in his dissertation, The Transition from the Impersonal to the Personal Constricc- 
tioit in M. E., takes no account of it, and I have met with no parallels. 

2908. In J>is close. R has instead, " Here in, sir," repeating 1. 2902. The diver- 
gence of R from C is unusually wide. 

2962. wat. See, for similar forms, note to 1. 28. 

2972. The line is too short. See also 1. 3021 and the note thereon. For other 
such lines, see note to 1. 84. A, 1. 2664, avoids the difficulty by reading spousi in 
place of wed. Ar, 1. 1790, reads: " W/t/^ J^at jjou wylt my leman be"; and E, 
1. 2675, similarly : " If ^u wylt my lewman be." 

2988. In hir faith sho was ful fals. So A*, p. 84 : " moult fu tost ses cuers 
muez et changiez." Other M. E. MSS. are silent here. 

2992. had a wonde. H, p. 67, adds that his ears had also been cut off. 

2997. draw owt \\ swerde. With D, she draws a knife. 

2998. thar, needs. The pret., thurt, occurs in 1. 1522. See Ca?it. Tales, A, 1. 4320, 
D, 11. 329, 336, 1365, H, 1. 352 ; see also N. E. D. under Dare, A, 9, and van der 
Gaaf, I.e., p. 154. 

fared. The MS. reads lered. But fered has the support of both R and the 
context. 

3002. According to H his excuse is as follows (p. 67) : " Dum erat vivus, socius 
meus erat et ideo dedecus militi vivo esset quod talem despectum mortuo perpe- 
traret." 

301 1. His forteth. So all other M. E. MSS. except F and D, which are in 
accord with A*, p. 84 : " .ii. des denz" ; with A* also are K and H. 

3018. smate his fortheth out. F, H, and the Welsh version eacli add a third 
mutilation here. The addition of F is as follows (11. loi 5-1020) : 

" Dame," he seyde, " y vndurstonde 

He fayled twaye fyngers of hys honde." 

" Syr," sche seyde, " so mot y the, 

He schall anon fayle thre." 

Sche toke hys svvyrde be hys syde, 

And smate of thre fyngers yn \>a\. tyde. • 

H makes the following addition (pp. 67, 68) : " ' Latro, qui erat captus, duobus 
testiculis carebat. Si vero iste cum testiculis inuentus fuerit in patibulo, dicetur 
quod ille non sit et sequetur confusio.' At ilia : ' Tam timidum hominem nun- 
quam vidi; tamen bonum est te esse securum. Succide testiculos eius cito, ut 



NOTES 179 

suspendatur ! ' At ille : ' O bona domina, parcas michi ! . . .' At ilia: ' Et ego 
faciam pro tuo amore ! ' Statim testiculos eius abscidit." 

According to the Welsh version (in agreement with certain derivatives of vidua, 
as the versions of Marie de France and Walter of England), the knight reminds 
the widow that the robber was bald, and she has accordingly to pluck the hair 
from his head ; see Jones's translation, p. 656 : " Yes, said the knight then, the 
robber was bald. I will make him bald, said she ; and she took her husband's 
head between her knees with her two feet on his two shoulders. No woman 
shearing or man shaving ever was as quick as she in plucking her husband's 
head. And quickly from his forehead to the crown of his head she left not a hair 
without plucking it away more than the parchment-maker leaves on parchment." 

3021. The line is too short; see 1. 2972: "If Jjat Jjou wil wed me," and the 
note to 1. 84, where sundry other such lines are pointed out. Professor Kittredge, 
however, suggests that this line should be scanned as follows : 

Sir, now sdl Jjou wed (x) me. 

3022. See note to 1. 11 53. 

3028. H, p. 68, adds that the knight then drew his sword and struck off the 
widow's head. 

3038. righ[t]wis. The reading of R ; C has righzvis. The scribe of C also 
omitted the t after igh in wightly, 1. 3374. 

3039-3042. This speech of the Emperor is omitted by other M.E. MSS. 
It appeared in the O. F., however; see A*, p. 85 : " Dex, dit li emperieres, se je 
pooie savoir qui auroit tort, ou lui ou ma feme, certes je en feroie si cruel juge- 
ment comme mi baron sauroient esgarder." 

Headings p, 104. Threttende. The word appears only in these two head- 
ings, and in both instances it is abbreviated. The spelling adopted is that of the 
Pricke of Conscience, 1. 7173. 

3057, 3058. herd ge neuer J»e geste, etc. Also in the O. F. (A*, p. 85, and K, 
1. 2347). Evidently a bait thrown out to the Emperor, for the romancer scarcely 
means to imply that we have in Roma the origin of the Feast of Fools. 

3058. pe foles feste. The Feast of Fools was the famous mediaeval celebra- 
tion at New Year; it was held by the inferior clergy in cathedrals and collegiate 
churches. See, for an extensive bibliography of the subject and for a veiy sub- 
stantial discussion of its history and meaning, E. K. Chambers, The Mediaval 
Stage, Oxford, 1903, I, pp. 274-335. 

3061. Identical with 1. 2577. See note to 1. 3. 

3063 f. For a summary of the chief variations in the different versions of Rovia, 
and for a discussion of its analogues, with a suggestion as to its origin, see 
the Introduction, pp. cviii f. 

In H, as has been observed in the note to 1. 1689 f., Roma is appended to scnes- 
calcus. The version of Roma as it appears in the Welsh redaction is unique in 
that it presents a.fusion of the story with the fable of the wolves and the sheep 
{Rom., 111,13; Caxton's Aesop, ed. Jacobs, II, p. 87). In Jones's translation (p. 653) 
the story runs thus ; 



l8o NOTES 

" There was a wealthy and strong city in the East, and seven proper and wise 
men were keeping and governing the city. And it was not in the garrison, nor in 
the citizens, that the strength of the city lay, but in the learning and cleverness 
of the men. And meanwhile there came a cruel and mighty king, to try to subdue 
the city. And after sitting before the town, and planting engines against it, the 
king did not prosper, because of the cleverness of the men within, guarding their 
city. And when the subtle king saw that the town was not taken by fighting, he 
at once promised to retire from it, saying he would not fight the multitude in the 
city, on condition they would send him the seven men aforesaid. And the sense- 
less people, without seeing the treachery and the smart that was hidden under- 
neath the leaves, believed the lie and deceit of the king's promises, and took the 
men, and put them in bonds, thinking to send them out to him. 

" And then rose up one of the wise men and spake thus, Good sirs, said he, 
it will befall you through believing yonder cruel king, after giving us into his 
power, as the wolf formerly cheated the shepherd. How was that ? said they. 
A cruel and wicked wolf was seeking occasion and opportunity against the shep- 
herds and animals, to slay them, but fleet mastiffs, which the shepherd had, 
allowed him no rest, either in forest or field. And when the wolf saw this, he 
promised peace and quiet everlastingly to the shepherd and his beasts, if he 
caught the dogs and bound them, and gave them over to him. And the foolish 
shepherd believed the wolf's lying words, and sent the dogs to the wolf, and he 
quickly killed, first, the dogs, then the beasts, and at last the shepherd. Right so 
will ye all be put to death by yonder cruel king, if ye believe him, after he has 
slain us. As God lives, we will not believe him, or ever give you up into his 
power. And then by their counsel they overcame him and slew him." 

3065. seuyn hathen kinges. With D, only three kings ; with H, merely one, 
the steward who had figured in senescalais. 

Z^lli 3078' Found elsewhere only in F; see note to 1. 1189. 

3087. A moneth. So also A, Ar, E, B, F. A*, p. 86, has ".vii. mois "; D, seven 
days ; D*, three months ; and K, six months. 

3097. Genus, the Janus of Roman myth. D does not mention the clerk's 
name till later (in 1. 2730), when it calls him Gyneuer. 

3099. And after him es named lenuere. So A*, p. 86: "et pour celui Genus 
dit Ten jenvier " ; similarly F, 1. 1694 : " And aft;/r hym men calle a monyl) of he 
yere." Other M. E. MSS. are silent here, or reserve this detail until the very 
end of the story. According to Ar, which calls the sage Julius, the month named 
after him is July. 

3104. With swerel tailes, etc. Some of the other MSS. are a trifle more 
faithful to the O. F. here ; see Ar, E, B, F : " squirrel tales a thousand and more " 
= A*, p. 86 : " queues d'escureus plus d'un millier." 

3106. The text of A ends with the line corresponding to this (in Weber's 
edition, 1. 2780). 

3110. See note to 1. 78. 

3111, 3112. tonges . . . bright glowand, etc. A*, p. 86: "dont les langues 
furent ausi vermeilles comme charbons qui art." — See note to 1. 78. 



NOTES l8i 

3 1 14. With Ar, E, and B, he also sent word to the enemy that he was ready 
for battle. 

3121. a towre. A*, p. 86: "la tour du Cressant " ; so also K, Ar, E, F. See 
note to 1. 1317. 

3132. ane angel bright. A* p. 87 : " Li diex des Crestiens " ; so also K, D* 
F, and D. 

3144. gode wane = large number or quantity; "Weber renders: "in good 
manner, gallantly." irmie occurs also in 11. 265 and 3542. 

3148. mekil gold and gude armowre. According to A*, p. 87, merely "grant 
avoir"; other MSS. either omit or are equally unspecific. See note to 11. 2826- 
2829. 

3151-3156. This feature seems to be peculiar to Y; it appears here and in Ar, 
B, and F, but is omitted by D, A*, K, D*, and H. 

3159. And J»ou mun be ful fayn, may fall. So F, 1. 1744 : " And \>o-a schalt, 
so hyt may be-falle." For other instances of the impersonal construction with- 
out a grammatical subject, see note to 1. 68. 

3164-3170. An addition of this redaction. 

3188. Maxencius. A*, p. 88, adds that he was thirty-seven years old, yet knew 
all the seven arts. 

3rg4. The same as 1. 40. See note to 1. 3. 

3213, 32r4. This couplet appears elsewhere only in F. See note to 1. 1189. 

3235 f. For a summary of the Dolopaihos version of inclusa, with the chief 
variations among the several versions of The Seven Sages of Rome., together with 
a listing of the derivatives and analogues of the story, see the Introduction, 
pp. cix f. 

Incbisa is omitted by L and S, and in H is put into the mouth of the Queen (see 
Paris, Deux Redactions, pp. xxxii f.). 

3236. Hungary. So also Ar, E, B, F, D ; but A*, p. 89, has RIonbergier. 

3239 f. For other examples of dream-begotten love, see Dunlop, History of Fic- 
tion, ed. Wilson, I, pp. 258 f. 

3254. him dremyd. See Chaucer's Sir T/iopas, B, 1. 1977 : " Me dremed al \>\s 
r).yg\it, Pardee," and Rot?i. of Rose, 1. 51 • "That it was May thus dremed me." 

3259. monethes thre. So also Ar, E, and P. According to B, one month ; 
according to D, A*, K, and D*, three weeks. 

3264. Hungeri. Inconsistent with 11. 3236 f., according to which the knight 
had, three months before, left Hungary. A* also has Hungary here, but has the 
knight set out from RIonbergier. Ar, which, like C, makes Hungary the home of 
the knight, avoids any inconsistency by reading Pletys here (see note to 1. 4136); 
in like manner, E, F, and D substitute Apulia for Hungary here. 

3272. Except for the verb, identical with 1. 10 ; R has bare instead of had, and 
hence is quite identical with 1. 10. 

3275. might noght out. For other instances of the omission of the infinitive, 
see note to 1. 699. 

3276. A*, p. 90, adds here : " En la tour avoit huis de fer bienbarrez. Li sires 
emportoit les cles tot jourz." This information C brings in later, in 11. 3347-3348. 



l82 NOTES 

3282. white so flowre. This comparison appears also in Ar, E, and P, but is 
not in A*. It is naturally very common; see Kaluza's note to Lib. Desc, 1. 1489, 
and Hall's note to Kmg Horn^ 11. 15-16. For other comparisons in C, see note 
to 1. 78. 

3294. At ]?e ches. Peculiar to this redaction. See notes to 11. 2826-2829 and 
3148. 

3301 f. D reserves the knight's explanation of the cause of his flight until 
later (see D, 11. 2961 f.), when the knight explains, at the instance of the wife, 
the occasion for his returning home. 

3314. mystere. The same word is used in the O. F. ; see A*, p. 90: "car je ai 
grant mestier de soudoiers." 

3335. A letter. So E and F; but A*, p. 91: " .i. gros jon crues dedanz," — 
with which Ar, B, and D are in accord. According to D, she made of some 
rushes a karole or wreath, which reached all the way from the window to the 
ground. 

3339, 3340. Elsewhere only in F; see note to 1. 1189. 

3347, 3348. See note to 1. 3276. 

3349. on a day. According to A*, p. 91, eight days after the incident of the 
letter. 

3354. A litel place in for to lig. With D*, p. 45, " ung pou de terre . . . pour 
faire une estable a ses chevaulx." 

3377> 3378' Mai I traist on J>e, For to tel my preuete, i.e., " May I trust 
you so much as to justify me in telling to you my secret plans?" F, 11. 1920- 
192 1, reads with absolute clearness : " ' Maystyr,' he seyde, ' may I truste to t>e To 
telle J'e my preuyte.' " 

3379. aghteld, pitrposed. See A^. E. D. under Ettle. 

3381. J'at he sold whatsom he wolde. Other instances of the omission of 
the infinitive after an auxiliary are cited in the note to 1. 699. Here, as in 1. 699, 
R expresses the infinitive. Weber, in ignorance of R, inserted do after sold. 

3398. ]7aire. An awkward reference. For instances of imperfect concord 
between reference word and antecedent, see note io J>aire, 1. 753. 

3399, 3400. C does not hold to the O. F. here ; according to A*, p. 92, it was 
the knight who now rejoiced: "Quant li cheualiers 01 ce, si fu moult liez." Ar, 
B, and F are in accord with A*. 

3426. D* omits the incident of the ring. 

3433. See note to 1. 988 for other instances of the omission of the relative 
pronoun subject. 

3440. saw his whiues ring. According to H the earl first saw the ring on the 
knight's hand one day while the two were together on a hunt ; see p. 60 : " Cum 
vero per totum diem luderent, ad quandam aquam venerunt et ibi sedebant. 
Miles vero iuxta regem incepit dormire habens manum extensam, in qua erat 
anulus in digito, quem regina ei dedit. Rex, cum anulum vidisset, statim noticiam 
eius habebat et ait in corde suo : ' Iste est anulus meus, quem in signum amoris 
regine concessi.' " 

3443-3446. An amplification peculiar to this redaction. 



NOTES 183 

3488. For I sal seme it wonder wele — A*, p. 93: "je le garderai moult bien." 
The only other MS. to preserve this detail is F. See, for other evidence of the 
nearness of F to C, note to 1. 1189. 

3489, 3490. Dame, he sayd, ... A sight J»arof J^at I might se. A similar 
example of ellipsis in expression of a wish is furnished by 11. 4299-4300. 

3492. Sir, gladly at Jowre will. A*, p. 93 : " Sire, dist ele, puisq'il vous 
plest, si le verroiz." The only other MS. to preserve this passage is B (1. 3180). 

3497. The line is too short ; see note to 1. 84. 

3527. es. Probably singular, though tij>andes is used in the preceding hne as 
a plural. For es with plural subject, see note to 1. 2144. 

3538. smeretly. See note on 1. 394 for two other instances of medial curled r. 

3558. Gold. Perhaps to be read as a dissyllable. See 1. 3589 and note to 1. 222. 

3567? 3568. was . . . Mete and drink. Mete and drink are perhaps thought of 
as a unit (see note to 1. 542). 

3576. A line of three stresses apparently. See, for other such lines, the note 
to 1. 84. 

3589. gold. See notes to 11. 222 and 3558. 

3612. ]7ai toke vp mete, and clathes drogh. A*, p. 95: "les tables furent 
ostee." Other M. E. MSS. are silent here. 

3626. was gane obowt. That is, " was in the act of starting to go." 

3630. Keped him. See note to 1. 988 for other instances of the omission of 
the relative pronoun. 

3669 f. D abridges the conclusion to the story, omitting the marriage of the 
lady and the knight. 

3679 f. The style here, as often, is exceedingly broken and choppy. 

3687. The line can be read as tetrameter only by a liberal disregard of word 
and sentence accent. The emending of swith to siinthe would give to the line a 
perfect rhythm. 

3692. whare his godes in was. Apparently an example of xuas with a plural 
subject (see note to 1. 542) ; but it is more likely, I think, \.\x2X godes is used here 
as a singular, though the N. E. D. cites no example earlier than the sixteenth 
century. 

3718. wex sary. With D, he destroyed himself by leaping out of his tower. 

3747) 3748. " For she well knew that nothing was to be gained by mooting 
(arguing, disputing about) that matter any further." 

3749, 3750. For other examples of the pleonastic pronoun subject, see note 
to 11. 129 f. 

3754. Him for to preche wald sho noght prase. This I take to mean, " She 
did not hasten to complain to him " ; an interpretation which derives some sup- 
port from 1. 3748. 

3765-3768. So A*, p. 97 : " Quant la messe fu chantee, il s'asamblerent, si 
s'aresterent en une bele place devant le moustier." None of the rest of the M. E. 
MSS. are faithful to the original here. 

3776. An independent addition of this redaction. 

3779. A*, p. 97 : " La noise et li criz fu granz que Ten n'i oi'st pas Dieu tonant." 



l84 NOTES 

3798. al vnder. This may mean : " put to death " (see A*, p. 98 : " et mi 
mestre tuit .vii. destruit ") ; but probably means merely : " brought low," " dis- 
graced" (see 1. 3800, and Ipomado7t (A), 11. 1428, 3681, and Minot, II, 1. 18). 

3799. for, " in order that." 

3800. flemed. Weber erroneously renders : " flamed, burnt." ■ 
3803. here bi west. Peculiar to this redaction. See note to 1. 963. 

3819 f. For the characteristic features of the different versions of vaticinliim, 
and for a discussion of the variants and analogues of the story, see the Introduc- 
tion, pp. cxii f. 

3821. Other instances of the omitted relative pronoun subject are pointed out 
in the note to 1. 988. 

3822. fiften winters. So also E and B. But A* reads twelve years ; F, seven 
years ; and Ar, four years. The collocation is stereotyped ; see the numerous 
instances cited by R. Fischer, How The Wyse Man Taught Hys Sone, Erlangen, 
1889, pp. 51 f., and Hall's note to Alng Horn, L and 0, 11. 17, 18. 

3823 f. In H the scene of this episode is laid at the house of the father. 

3832. In an yle. So also D; and similarly A*, p. 98: "por aler a .i. reclus 
qui estoit seur .i. rochier. Other M. E. MSS. are silent. 

3834. Twa rauenes. D : three ravens ; H : a nightingale." 

3882. Foure dales. So E, B, F, and K; according to A*, p. 99, and D*, p. 48, 
three days. 

3886-3892. An independent addition. The redactor of cr elaborated more 
freely in vaticiniiim than in any other story. Other passages in this story which 
find nothing corresponding to them in other texts are 11. 3S96-3906, 3909-3922, 
3976-3982, 3997-4000, 4197-4202, and 4289-4296. 

3923. }7e castele. According to E, B, and A* (p. 99), thirty miles distant from 
the island. 

3925. said ]7e childe. According to E, for twenty pounds ; according to A*, 
p. 99, for twenty marks. 

3960, 3961. wald wend ... If. The context indicates that this should be 
i-nterpreted : "would go to learn if."' 

3962. The line is noteworthy for its cumbrous succession of heavy mono- 
syllables. 

3978. puruay. Here used apparently with the meaning either of collect or 
of come together, though neither the Century Diet., Stratmann, nor Skeat gives 
either meaning. 

3982. takes. See note to 1. 2146. 

4009-4012. C is free here ; A*, p. 100, has instead: "se li oisel ne s'en aloient, 
vous n'en seriez ja creuz." 

4050. so bifell. Cf. 1. 975: "Bifel I'us"; and see note to 1. 68. 

4063, 4064. Omitted by all other M. E. MSS. except F; see note to 1. 1189. 

4105. his. R has/w, a better reading. 

4133-4136. Peculiar to this redaction. 

4136. His fader and moder was. Other examples of was with a plural or a 
compound subject are pointed out in the note to 1. 542. 



NOTES 



185 



]?e town. According to L, K, and D this town was Plecie {Flesseiz, Fiessis). 
According to A*, p. loi, the town was somewhere within the young king's realm, 
but was not the town in which he lived. According to H the land which it falls 
to the young king to rule over is Egypt. 

4145. Gerard Nories son. So B, 1. 3572, and F, 1. 2461 ; but E, 1. 3458, has 
" Bamarde Norysshe sone." L* has instead " Gerard fils de Thierry." 

4195, 4196. Here again this text is nearer to the O. F. than are the other M. E. 
MSS., all of which omit this detail; see A*, p. 102 : "son pere li corut a I'estrier, 
car ne sot pas que ce fust son filz." 

4200. JJai set trestes and bordes on layd. See Kick. Coer de Lion, I. 102 
(ed. Weber, II, p. 7) : " They sette tresteles and layde aborde." Trestes ^^xe, trestles 
or large stools ; see Cetittiry Diet, under trest, 2. Concerning the meal table in 
the Middle Ages, see Schultz, Hdf. Leben, I, pp. 80, 432. 

4209. and held it vp. According to A*, p. 102, the son would not allow his 
father to do this service : " mes li rois ne le vost pas soufrier." 

4228. him changed hew. Other M. E. MSS. are silent; A*, p. 102: "fu 
moult esbahiz." 

4257. I had leuer haue died. A*, p. 102, with greater concreteness : "mes je 
ne le feisse, ain9ois me lessasse desmembrer." 

4267, 4271 f. Similarly A*, pp. 102-103: "por ce que je doutoie et avoie paour 
qu'il ne vous destruisist, et qu'il ne vous tolist I'empire." B is the only other M. E. 
MS. to reflect the O. F. so faithfully. According to E the Empress was afraid 
the Prince would put her to death ; according to P, that he would destroy both 
her and the Emperor. 

4283. gaudes. Weber erroneously reads gandes, and renders: "wiles, mis- 
chievous designs." 

4291. wath, harm, danger. See Cursor Mititdi, 1. 871; Pricke of Conscience, 
1. 4558; and Gaivayne and Green Knight, 1. 2355. 

4299, 4300. See note to 11. 3489-3490. 

4303. or none, " before noon." The regular Northern form for Mod. English 
none is nane. 

4325 f. E, which is elsewhere very conservative, ventures here an addition of 
some thirty lines {3561-358S), as follows: 

And whenne that hys fadyr dede was, 
He lete make a nobylle plas, 
And a fay re abbeys he lete begynne, 
And seuyn schore monkys brought there-yn, 
And euyr more to rede and synge 
For hys fadyr, w/t//-owte lesynge. 
And tho was the chylde made Empcroure, 
And kept hys londe -^ith grete honoure ; 
Of al knyghtys he bare the prys. 
And a-monge alle men moste wys. 
And moste he louyde stedefastenys, 
In worde and dede, more and les ; 
And therefore God gaffe hym goode lyf, 
And brought hym fayre owte of stryf. 



I86 NOTES 



Nowe haue ye hyrde, euery man, 
Of the Emp^roure Deoclycyan, 
And allso of hys fals wyfe, 
And howe the chylde come owte of stryffe ; 
And of the maysters ye haue hyrde, 
The wysyste men of alle myddelle-hyrthe. 
How they sauyde the chylde so yonge 
Thorowe hyr wysdome and hyr connynge. 
And nowe ben dede the Maysters Seuyn. 
Ih^j'us, that ys Kyng of Heuyn, 
Graunte us er we hens wende 
Houselle and shryfte and goode ende, 
The blysse of Heuyn aboue, 
Ihe^u for his modyr loue. 



GLOSSARY 



GLOSSARY 



a, adj., one, 329, 2038, 3199, 3347, 3550, 
etc.; 0, 2964; an, 714, 790, 1061 ; 
ane, 197, 1210, 1213, 1248, 1320, etc.; 
one, 3558 ; vntil ane, unanimously, 
416; euer in one, constantly, 471.' 
See tane. 

aby, v., pay for, 736, 1484, 4288. 

adred, pp., frightened, afraid, 502, 1423, 
2323, 4030. 

affray, v., attack, 2214. 

aght, sh., aught, anything, 798 ; Oght, 

2153- 3404- 
aght, adj., eight, 2136. 
aght, adj., eighth, (headings) pp. 63 

and 64. 
aght, z'.,pt.ind., possessed, 3270; ought, 

2143. 
aghteld, //., purposed, 3379. See note. 
aij^er, adj., each, either, 3108. 
ai]7er, /rt)«., each, either, 1850 ; ayther, 

2229, 3418. 
alegance, sb., alleviation, relief, 1267. 

See note. 
algates, adv., in any case, 2792. See 

sogat and ]7usgat. 
al if, conj., even if, 745, 1017. 
alkins, adj., of every kind, 1226, 3467, 

4153 ; alkin, 463. See nakins, nane- 

kins, and whatkin. 
aller, adj., of all, 2326, 3155. See alj»er- 

maste. 
als, conj., as, 78, 122, etc.; as if, 527, 

532, etc. 
als, adv., also, 30, 70, etc. ; alswa, loi, 

808, etc.; also, 55, 373, etc. 
alsone, adv., as soon, 3339 ; immedi- 
ately, 569, 1614, 2059, 3173; als sone, 

518, 561, 1268, 4257. 



alswa, see als. 

alswith, adi'., immediately, 2510; als 

swith, 3172. 
al]7ermaste, adj., most of all, very 

great, 3886. See aller. 
and, conj., if, 558, 1090, 1163, 1800, 

3040, 3077. 
anas, adv., once, 1675, 1786. 
anly, adj., solitary, 261 ; anely, 1894. 
Anxilles, 66, 1060, (heading) p. 38. 
are, adv., formerly, before, 795, 1469, 

1626, 2076, 2334, 4038 ; sooner, 1377, 

2777. 3023, 4253- 
Ars Metrike, sb., arithmetic, 191. See 

note. 
aseth, sb., reparation, 382. 
at, prep., to, 124, 174, 790, 2122, 2 171, 

3086, 3343, 3518. 
at, conj., that, 141 3, 1750, 4150. 
auenant, adj., graceful, comely, 11. 
auere, sb., possessions, 2413. 
Auerell, sb., April, 11 68. 
avoy, interj., an exclamation of remon- 
strance, 2342. 
awin, adj., own, 284, 1414, 1646 ; awyn, 

3600, 3619; owin, 953, 1496, 1757, 

1759- 
ayre, sb., heir, 30, 333, 374, 2345 {MS. 
are ; see note) ; aire, 2844. 

ban, v., curse, anathematize, 1077 ; 

banned, //. ind., 2374. 
Bancillas, 53; Bausillas, 457, 713, 727, 

743' 937i (heading) p. 26 ; Bawsillas, 

773- 
bare, sb., boar, 958, 960, 965, 972, 982, 

etc. 
bareheuid, adj., bareheaded, 238. 



189 



190 



GLOSSARY 



barm, sb., lap, 1974, 1988. 
barnage, sb., barons, 273, 582, 3949. 
barnes, sb., children, bairns, 291, 4276. 
bate, v., J sg. pt. ind., bit, stung, 825, 

839- 

be,z'.,be, 116, 127, etc.; bene, 1150,1284; 
am, I sg. pres. itid., 243, 352, etc. ; 
art, 2 sg., 503, 1 02 1, etc.; bese, 1289 ; 
es, J j-^., 50, 106, 156, 165, 178, etc.; 
bese, 692 ; eT,p/n. pres. ind., 43, 363, 
447, 728, 850, 1212, etc. ; ere, 221 1 {see 
note); es, 2144 {see note); be, sg. 
hiiper., 1688, 1925; \i&se,plu.impe>:, 
4232; \ie, pres.subj., 133, 1651, 3921; 
was, sg.pi. ind., 6, 8, 12, 15, 18, etc. ; 
wase, 282, 1259; •vax,plu. pt. ind., 
34, 37, 161, 187, 218, etc.; ware, 44, 
971; was, 542 (.'), etc. (j-^^note); war, 
pt. subj., 527, 698, 744, 763, etc.; ware, 
109, 306, 855, 941, 1017, etc.; wer, 
532; were, 123; bene,//., 677, 861, 
1574, etc. ; ben, 3672. 

bed-fere, sb., bedfellow, 595. 

belamy, sb., good friend, 644. 

benisown, sb., blessing, benediction, 
1383; benzown, 381 1. 

bere, sb., bier, 2826. 

besant, sb., a gold coin, 2591, 2745; 
besand, 2600, 2656. 

bidene, adv., immediately, 1405, 1687, 
1755, 2671 ; (an expletive) 231. 

biforn, prep., before, 706, 764 ; byforn, 
1112. 

big, v., build, 3353, 3359. 

biliue, adv., quickly, 655, 1041, 1412, 
1459' 1935. 3013; bilyue, 652, 707, 
1779, 1798, 3449, 3772 ; byliue, 3685. 

bishrewed, //., ill used, abused, 678. 

biswikes, v., j phi. pres. ind., deceive, 
2748. 

bitake, v., 2 sg. imper., give, 135 ; 
bitoke, J sg. pt. ind., 733. See tak. 

biteche, v., i sg. pres. ind., commit, 
consign, 738. 

blayke, adj., light, yellow, 121. See note. 



blyn, v., desist from, 3290. 

boght, v., pt. ind., redeemed, paid for, 
2901, 2907; //., 546. 

bolnyng, sb., swelling, 1696. 

bord, sb., table, 3550, 3569 ; borde, 327 ; 
burd, 2023; bordes, boards, planks, 
4200. 

borow, v., deliver, set free, 1859, 2781 ; 
borowd, //., 2133. 

boste, sb., noise, 3127. 

bot, conj., if not, 1446. 

bot if, conJ., unless, 466, 567, 875, 955, 
1082, 1 1 60, 1258. 

bote, sb., profit, advantage, improve- 
ment, 1 1 59, 1707, 2845, 3747. 

boun, adj., ready, prepared, 16S6, 2377 ; 
bowne, 459 ; starting, on the way, 
bound, 655, 1095, 2894, 3767; deter- 
mined, 1043. 

bourdice, sb., tournament, 806, 847 ; 
bowrdice, 777. 

bourding, sb., jesting, 24. 

bowsumly, adv., humbly, respectfully, 

3785. 
boyes, sb., executioners, hangmen, 2377. 
brast, v., pt. ind., burst, 1048, 2082. 
brayd, v., draw, 3125. 
brede, sb., food, 1522. 
brede, sb., breadth, width ; on brede, 

over a wide surface, legibly, 2177. 
bren, v., burn, 585 ; brin, 2892 ; brined, 

pt. ind., 2165; brinand, pres. ptc, 

2457, 2827, 4314; brend, //., 2321, 

4253- 4302; brent, 2133. 
brid, sb., bird, 2520. 
brin, see bren. 
bro, sb., broth, 1184, 1189. 
burd, v., pt. ind., it behooved, 2798. 

See note. 
burias, sb., burgess, 632, 652, 657, 669, 

679, etc. ; buriase, pin., 1036 ; buri- 

ayse, 3151; burgas, 2517; burgase, 

643 ; burgays, 2266. 
bus, v., J sg. pres. ind., it behooves, 

1 146, 1 181, 3476. 



GLOSSARY 



191 



buskes, sd., clumps, grassy or bushy 

clods, tufts of sod, 992. See note. 
by, prej>. (used as conj.), by the time 

that, 845 ; bi, 2083. 
by, v., pay for, atone for, 912. See aby. 
byde, z:, wait, remain, 2629, 3190, 3421 ; 

bide, 3140, 3642; await, bede, 3130. 
byfore, adv., beforehand, in advance 

of, 1273. 
byforn, prej>., before, 33. 
byhoue, sd., advantage, 2753. 
bymenes, v., j sg. pres. ind., means, 

signifies, 2732. 

cache, sb., cage, 2465 ; cage, 2454, 4015 ; 
kage, 2420, 2500. 

cache, v., chase, 1748. 

Calaber, 1691. 

can, see kun. 

care, sb., grief, suffering, worry, 314, 
718, 1425, 1912, 2094, 2838, 3591. 

carpand, pres. ptc, conversing, 538. 

carping, sb., conversation, 2551. 

case, sb., happening, affair, chance, 17, 
26, 242, 254, 281, 440, 574, 728, etc. ; 
cas, 872, 938. 

catele, sb., property, 1742. 

Caton, 417, 460; Catonn, 2410, (head- 
ing) p. 82, 241 1 ; Catoun, 105, 400; 
Catown, 2378. 

cautelus, adj., crafty, 3098. 

chafare, sb., chaffer, business, 633. 

chance, sb., mischance, misfortune, 956, 
1968, 2801, 3211. 

chasty, v., chastise, 2063. 

chere, sb., face, 78, 2414, 3106; expres- 
sion of face, look, 143, 515, 596, 1838, 
2036, etc. ; mood, state of mind, 
2577, 3061, 3463, 3464, 3594, etc. 

childer, sb., children, 264, 342, 1420, 
1423, 1511, etc. 

clere, adj., famous, glorious, 105, 212; 
clear, bright, 2230, 3109. 

clergy, sb., learning, 46, 62, 84, 138, 
2379; (?) clergy, clergi, 2161. 



clerk, sb., a learned man, 1102, 1327, 
2267, etc. ; clerkes, 166, 2222, 2227, 
etc. ; klerkes, 13 19. 

clething, sb., clothing, 1046. 

close, sb., a closed place, an enclosure, 
2908. 

Clowes, v., J sg. pres. ind., scratches, 
1008; clo-wei, pi. ind., loii. 

clowing, sb., scratching, 958. 

contrariouse, adj., repugnant, distaste- 
ful, 1 1 82; contrarius, 1182. 

couenant, sb., covenant, agreement, 301, 
41 18; couenand, 4008; cownand, 
2974. 

cownand, see couenant. 

crakes, sb., ravens, 3858, 4219. 

Cressent, 2147, 2152. See note to 
1. 2147. 

crop, sb., top, highest part, 1160, 2327. 

cunand, adj., wise, cunning, 336; kun- 
and, 46. 

cunuayd, pp., conducted, accompanied, 

37II- 
curfu, sb., curfew, 1530, 1568, 1614, 

1623; curfoure, 1618. 
currurs, sb., messengers, couriers, 353. 

dampned, //., condemned, 2866. 

dang, see dyng. 

ded, sb., deed's, 1496. 

ded, sb., death, 711, 741, 954, 1024, 1 165, 

etc.; dede, 312, 1500, 1862, 2103, etc. 
ded, adj., dead, 674, 675, 679, 684, 702, 

etc. ; dede, 672. 
defoul, z'., violate, force, 2396. 
degh, T'., die, 1165; dy, 308, 429, 936, 

etc. 
delt, v., pi. ind., distributed, 2829. 
delued, v., pt. ind., dug, 2259, 2725; 

buried, 2238. 
deme, v., judge, 3042, 4083. 
departed,//., separated, parted, 1284. 
desterer, sb., war-horse, 493. 
dight, see dyght. 
dike, sb., ditch, 1354, 1358. 



192 



GLOSSARY 



Dinise, Saint, 1783. 

dited, see dyght. 

do, V; perform, 364, 395, etc. ; done, 

442, 472, etc. ; dose, 2 sg. pres. ind., 

1029, 1605; J sg. pres. ind., 191 4; 

J phc. pres. ind., 3203 ; did, pt. ind., 

545, 696, etc.; done, pp-,yi^, 413. 

etc. ; put, 1046 ; dose, 2 sg. pres. ind., 

1862; did, /A ind., 1318, 1755, etc.; 

done,//., 562, 741, etc. ; make, cause, 

dose, J sg. pres. ind., 1904; dO, 2 sg. 

pres. subj., 1493 ! ^ ^S- imper., 764. 
dome, sb., judgment, decree, 28, 103, 

275, 1203, 2134, etc.; doom, fate, 

2790. 
domes-men, sb., judges, 1534, 1640. 
done, adv., see down, 
dosele, j^, plug, 1244; dosels, 1246. 
dote, v., be silly, act foolishly, 1904. 
down, adv., down, 999, 1005, etc.; 

downe, 1293; doun, 454, 501, etc.; 

done, 685. 
dowt, sb., fear, 3012, 3073; dout, 

2494. 
drewri, sb., amour, sexual love, 1175. 
dried, v., pt. ind., dried up, 666. 
drogh, v.,pt.ind., drew, 844, 1015, 2170, 

2989 ; drew off, removed, 3612. 
dub, v., fit out, decorate, 3103; dubed, 

//•. 3559- 
dyght, v., prepare, make ready, 493 ; 

dight, pi. ind., 231 1 ; dyght, 3046; 

dyght,//., 3567 ; fit out, dress, dight, 

pt. ind., 3543, 3659; dighted, 3620; 

//., dight, 2364; dyght, 3559, 3760, 

3775 ; smooth over, dress, dited, pt. 

ifid., 1342; destine, condemn, dight, 

pt. ind., 19; //., 711, 2122; dyght, 

2777. 
dyng, v., beat, 3180; dang, j pin. pt. 

ind., 2459. 
Dyoclician, 6. 

ee, see eghe. 

eft, adv., again, 1352. 



eghe, sb., eye, 3214; ee, 3268; eghen, 

phi., 122, 2331, 2720, 2722, 2750, etc. ; 

yen, 1013. 
eld, sb., age, 68, 1889; elde, 4273. 
els, adv., else, otherwise, 231, 244, 245, 

585, etc. ; quasi-conj., provided that, 

2294 (see note). 
eme, sb., uncle, 1222; emes, 11 13. 
encheson, sh., reason, cause, 324, 646, 

1255,2690,3951. 
ender, adj., other, recently past, 16S9. 
entent, sb., heed, attention, 41, 397, 

2593. 3982. 
ertow, art thou, 949, 3219; ertou, 2916, 

2917. 
ete, 7^., eat, n8i, 1184, 1187, 3531; et, 

3550, 3570; ett, 203S, 2861, 3566, 

3580 ; ette, 3922 ; ett, 3 plu.pres. ind., 

2026 ; ete, pt. ind., 200, 3882 ; etin, 

//., 874, 2048; etyn, 361 1. 
euerilkane, pron., each one, every one, 

252, 1239, 2762, 2867, 3763, 4036. 

fageing, sb., feigning, 514. 

falles, v., 3 sg. pres. ittd., pertains, 100. 

fame, sb., foam, 993. 

fand, v., try ; fandes, (?) 2 pin. imper., 

264 {see note) ; fanded, //. ind., 829. 
fare, sb., faring, condition, 41 51; con- 
duct, 4045. 
fare, v., go, 717; 2 sg. imper., 1565; 

behave, fares, j sg. pres. ind., 21 19; 

J plu. pres. ind., 3310. 
fe, sb., property, 1508, 181 2. 
fele, adj., many, 162, 1122, 1214, 1243, 

1650. 
feled, //., hidden, 2270. 
fell, adj., cruel, ruthless, 1918, 21 10, 

3067 ; fel, 931. 
felly, adv., cruelly, 2497. See fell, 
fen, sb., filth, 1439. 
fer, adj., far, remote, 2245, 3371, 3552 ; 

fere, 2648. 
fer, adv., far, 211, 1392, 1986, 2957, 

3263;ferr, 1513. 



GLOSSARY 



193 



ferd, sh., fear, 2438 ; fered, 3404 ; ferid, 

2460. 
ferd,//., frightened, afraid, 996, 4228; 

fered, 2998 {see note). 
ferdnes, sb., fear, 96S. 
fere, sb., companion, 1565, 4064. 
fere, sb., company ; in fere, together, 
. 148, 1063, 1420, 3684, 3830, 4231. 
fere, adj., well, 1706. 
fere, v., fare, get along ; feres, 2 sg. 

pres. ind., 2485; i^X^, pt. ind., 1553, 

1625, 2484. 
ferly, sb., strange thing, 667, 1625, 3940 ; 

ferlik, 896 ; ferlies, phi., 404. 
ferly, adj., strange, wondrous, 26, 242, 

254, 281, 440, etc. 
ferly, adv., strangely, wondrously, 987, 

2482. 
ferm, sb., revenue, 2876. 
ferth, adj., fourth, 87, 209, (headings) 

pp. 35 and 38, 21 17 ; firth, 1270. 
fest, v., pt. ind., fastened, 3124. 
fet, v., fetch, pt. hid., 1458; //., 1639, 

2407 ; fett, 386. 
fetyce, adj., handsome, well-made, 2818. 
filde, //., soiled, defiled, 838. 
firth, see ferth. 
fitz, sb., son, 1791. 
flayed,//., put to flight, 2219. 
fleghe, v., fly, 4061 ; flow, //. hid., 

4111. 
fleme, v., banish, drive away, 1803; 

flemed,//. md., 2535 ; //., 1818, 3800. 
flet, v., pt. hid., swam, 3866. 
fliting, sb., quarreling, 2644. 
Florentine, 25, 370, 418, 502, 4240 ; 

Floreentine, 394 ; Florentyne, 2376. 
florins, sb., gold coins, florins, 1794; 

florines, 1122. 
flow, see fleghe. 

flyng, v., throw or strike violently, 830. 
fone, sb., few, 987. 

forby, prep., in comparison with, 988. 
forcer, sb., coffer, 2237, 2260; forcere, 

2229 ; forceoure, 2269. 



forfare, v., go to destruction, be killed, 

1493, 2931. 
forheuyd, sb., forehead, 2993. 
forlayn, //., lain with unlawfully, 739 ; 

forlayne, 1792. 
forlorn, //., lost, 763. 
forord, //., lined with fur, 1984. 
forors, sb., furs, 529. 
forthoght, v.,pt. ind., regretted, 1999, 

2522. 
forpi, adv., for that reason, on that 

account, therefore, 45, 11 16, 1977, 

2092, 3274; forthi, 1081 ; forthy, 

3316. 
fourtenyght, sb., fortnight, 2633. 
ita.,prep., from, 120, 176,306, 329,436, 

etc. (57 times) ; fro, 487, 1748, 2957, 

4061. 
Franchg, j-^^., French, 3338. 
Frankis, adj., French, 2419. 
frayn, v., ask, 759. 
fre, adj., noble, 933, 2 151, 3455, 3820, 

4254. 
frely, adj., excellent, gracious, 3903. 
freres, sb., friars, 2828. 
fyne, sb., end, 725. 

ga, v., go, 354, 700, 807, 918, 1538, etc. ; 
go, 14, 1158, 1758, 2549; gan, 2834; 
gane, 11 23, 1209, 3406 ; gase, 3 sg. 
pres. ind., 1346, 1809, 2554, 3430, 
3508, etc. ; go, 2sg. iniper., 644 ; gose, 
2 phi. imper., 2706; ganp, //., 251, 
477, 486, 827, X033, etc. ; sede, //. 
ind., 1476, 1887, 3879 ; gode, 2424. 

gabing, sb., lying, 1148. 

gadlinges, sb., low fellows, 2340. 

gain, v., avail, profit, 525. 

gamen, sb., sport, 320; gamin, 1553; 
gamyn, 808, 1896; gamyns, sorts of 
sport, 388. 

gan, v., J sg. pt. ind. of gin, did (auxil- 
iary), 260, 392, 418, 484, 490, etc. 

gang, v., go, 1278, 1752, 2093, 3039, 
3788, 4294. 



194 



GLOSSARY 



gang, sb., a privy, 1393, 1439, 1446. 
gare, sb., clothes, 2415. See note. 
gate, sb., way, street, 1597, 2257. 
gaudes, sb., tricks, 525, 4283. 
gent, adj., well-born, elegant, 274, 406, 

2002, 3616. 
gentil, adj., worthy, noble, 56, 270. 
Genus, 3097, 3149- 
ger, v., cause, 412, 454, 568, 585, 1151, 

etc. ; ger, 2 sg. iviper., 554, 565 ; gers, 

2 phi. imper., 556 ; gert, pt. hid., t,'^, 

493, 706, 916, 1039, etc. 
Gerard Nories, 4145. 
gere, sb., garments, accouterments, 916, 

917, 3120; property, 3648. 
geste, sb., story, 3057. 
gif . . . ill, see ill. 
gilowre, sb., deceiver, 4280. 
gilri, sb., guile, fraud, stratagem, trick, 

2146; gillri, 2449; gilry, 2528, 

4283. 
glose, v., deceive, flatter, 2343. 
gode, sb., goods, property, 1524, 3647 ; 

gude, 1620; godes, 3692. 
godote, interj., God knows, in truth, 

667. 
grace, sb., favor, 744, 1452, 1482, 191 3, 

2398, etc. ; to safe joure grace, may 

it please you, 744 ; to saue jowre 

grace, 2398. 
graith, adj., ready, 3996. See grajrthly. 
gramercy, interj., many thanks, 350, 

464, 3234, 3414, 3700. 
graue, v., bury, 1460 ; groue, 3 phi. pt. 

ind., 2233; grauen, //., 18, 2831. 
grayd, v.,pt. ind., prepared, made ready, 

2031, 2675; pp., 4199. 
graythly, adv., quickly, 3430, 3494, 

3508 ; graithly, 3888. See graith. 
gret, v., pt. hid., wept, 2074, 2914. 
grome, sb., lad, 916, 1204. 
groue, see graue. 

grouelyng, adv., face downward, 836. 
grundes, sb., foundations, 2300. 
gryse, sb., young pig, 966. 



gude, sb., see gode. 

gyn, sb., artifice, 2019, 2308, 3055, 3345; 
gin, 3367- 

gare, adj., ready, 1839. 

sate, sb., gate, 719, 1598, 2234, 2239, 

2258, etc.; sates, 1035, i595' 2365, 

3074, 3141. 
sede, see ga. 
seme, v., care for, protect, 789, 3082, 

3488; ■z&va.&d.ypt.ind., 976, 3087, 3799, 

4059- 
sing, adj., young, 1676, 1897, 2846, 

4082; song, 671, 682, etc.; s^ng, 

370; songer, comp., 2267, 4056, etc. 
sit, adv., yet, thus far, still, 44, 1784, 

2047, 2051, 3010, 3479, 3633, 3780; in 

addition, 2196, 3851, 4271. 
sit, conj., yet, nevertheless, 15 16, 1544, 

3169. 
SOde, see ga. 
SOne, adj., yon, 424. 

hag, v., hack, cut, 658 ; haged, //. ind., 

660 ; hagged, 656. 
hailsed, v.,pt. ind., greeted, saluted, 40, 

237, 723. 2389, 3194, 3376, 4162. 
hak, sb., pick, mattock, 1333; hakkes, 

phi., 2674. 
hak, v., hack, chop, 653. 
hale, adj., hale, well, 907, 1706, 41S8; 

whole, uninjured, 2292; entire, 1099. 
halely, adv., wholly, entirely, 461, 1692 ; 

hally, 1926. 
hals, sb., neck, 513, 29S7. 
hamely, adv., familiarly, 3554. 
hand-haueing, p7-es. ptc, " having [the 

thing stolen] in hand," in the act, 

749 (see note), 1563. 
hardily, adv., boldly, 140, 935, 1449, 

1 72 1, 1978, 2833, 3071, 3605. 
harrow, interj., a cry of distress, 

536. 
hastif, adj., hasty, 931 ; hastife, 2540. 
hat, see hight. 



GLOSSARY 



195 



haue, z'; have, 51, 174, etc. ; / sg: pres. 

ind., 684, 700, etc. ; has, 2 sg. pres. 

ind., 1574, 2091, etc.; haues, j sg. 

pres. ind.., 676, 1277, etc.; has, 548, 

1736; hase, 2623; haue, //«. /r<?.f. 

i7id., 265, 329, etc. ; has, 2648 ; haue, 

pres. sitbj., 3, 45, etc. ; had, pt. ind., 

9, 13, etc. 
hee, adj., high, 3267 ; high, 9S5, 2393, 

2788; hy, 3195; higher, cotnp., z^-j ; 

heghest, snperl., 3984 ; in hy, in a 

loud voice, 2320, 2915 ; on high, i486. 
heght, sb. ; on heght, on high, aloft, 

2527 ; on hight, 226, 3121 ; on heght, 

aloud, 144. 
hend, sb., hands, 2825. 
hende, adj., courteous, gracious, 489, 

499' 504» 1963' 2400, 3519, 4240. 
hendly, adv., courteously, 237. 
hent, v., seize ; hentes, j sg. pres. ind., 

831, 1338, 3863; hent, /^. ind., 849, 

1760, 2205;//., 2869, 3459. 
herber, sb., a plot of ground covered 

with grass, a place of entertainment, 

628 (see note), 1931. 
hernays, sb., armor, 3252 ; hernayse, 

849. 
Herod, 2572, 2581, 2773. 
hete, see hight. 
hethin, adv.,\\^'s\c&, 2274, 2943 ; he]7en, 

1887. 
hething, sb., shame, ground for con- 
tempt, 91. 
heuid, sb., head,*i20, 1301, 1375, 1381, 

1384, etc.; heuyd, 3006; heued, 3123; 

bed, 3559. 
heuy, adj., mournful, 515. 
hight, sb., see heght. 
hight, v., be called ; hat, / sg.pres. ind., 

2654; hight, J sg. pt. ind., 80, 1102, 

1847, 3097 ;//., 2160 ; promise, hyght, 

I sg. pres. ind., 1 40 ; hete, / sg. pres. 

ind., 701, 935, 1449, 2779 ■,2sg. imper., 

1721 ; hight, /A ind., 461, 3191, 4026; 

//., 1736, 1744, 4005 ; hyght, 4023. 



hing, ?'., hang, 1052, 1931, 42o8;hyng, 

2788; hang, 707, 1050; hinges, J sg. 
pres. ind., 1007. 
hird, sb., shepherd, 976, 983, 989, 1014. 
hirdman, j('^, shepherd, 996, 1003, 1018. 
hode, sb., hood, 238, 981, 998. 
honest, adj., worthy, 2022. 
hoped, V; pt. ind., thought, 2428, 2632, 

3138; hopid, 1549, 3499; expected, 

hopid, 820, 2954; hoped,//., 1326. 
horde, sb., hoard, 3461 ; hurd, 2668. 
hore-maister, j-;^., paramour, 2435, 2452, 

2472. 
horkop, sb., child begotten in adultery, 

1201. 
houed, v., pt. ind., hovered about, 3836. 
hundereth, adj., hundred, 350. 
Hungery, 1118, 3236, 3514; Hungeri, 

3264. 
hurd, see horde, 
hy, .':b., haste, 163, 851, 1223, 1955, 

3375. 4173; hi, 1551, 2527, 2657, 

3563- 
hy, v., hasten, 540 ; MxQS, 3 sg.pres. ind., 

1066, 1602, etc.; hied,//, ind., 721, 

1343, etc. 
hy, adj., see hee. 

lame. Saint, 1961, 2968. 

lenuere, sb., January, 3099. 

lesse, 119, (heading) p. 96. 

Ihesus, 2973; Ihesu, 933, 10S4, 1306, 

1 567. 303O' etc. 
ilk, adj., same, 1177, 2801, 3230, 3549. 
ilk, adj., each, every, 1188, 1313, 1359, 

2210, 2797, etc. 
ilka, adj., each, every, 221, 328, 438, 

450, 785, etc. 
ilkane, /r^«., each one, 118, 223, 266, 

415, 478, etc.; ilkone, 31 10. 
ill, sb.; gif . . • ill, grieve, 3884; 

gaf . . . ill, 2914. 
in ]>at, adv. phrase, meantime, 982. 
intil, prep., into, 2433. 
inwith, /r^/., within, 126. 



196 



GLOSSARY 



lohn, Saint, i-jij, 2939. 

iolif, adj., merry, 21 87. 

iornay, see iurne. 

iubarb, sl>., the houseleek, 218. See 

note. 
iuiement, sb., judgment, 2134; iuge- 

ment, 2S70, 4308. 
iurne, sb., journey, 2227; iornay, 2211, 

3-55 ; labor, 4322. 
iust, v., joust, 802. 
iwis, adv., truly, 2724. 

kage, see cache. 

karped, v., pt. 2nd., called, spoke, 107. 

kaytef, adj., mean, despicable, 1345. 

ken, 7'., teach, tell, 913 ; kend, pt. ind., 
1139; recognize, 1403; know, 922, 
3080, 3468; kend, /A ind., 3341. 

kenyng, sb., recognition, 3561. 

kepe, sb., heed, 199, 1014, 1421. 

kepe, v., care for, guard, 1324, 2872, 
2877, 2883, 3086 ; keped, pt. ind., 
1325, 1340; receive, entertain, 4154; 
keped, //. />/</., 494, 3564, 3630. 

kindest, adj., most natural, most right- 
ful, 374. See vnkind. 

kirk-serd, sb., churchyard, cemetery, 
2893. 

kith, v., 2 sg. imper., make known, 1474. 

knaue, sb., boy, 1072; servant, 692; 
used as adj., knaue child, male child, 

15- 
knaw, v., know, / sg. pres. ind., no, 

1718; I pill. p7-es. ind., 2515; knew, 

pt. ind., 3249, 3556, etc. ; knawen, 

//., 2161,3924; recognize, 1386, 1402, 

etc. 
knawlageing, sb., means of identifying, 

1408. 
kun, 7/., know, 139, 148, etc. ; can, 

/ sg. pres. ind., 74, 191 5, etc. ; j plu. 

pres. ind., 166, 3202; kouth, //. ind., 

57, 1647, etc. ; kowth, 36, 11 15, etc.; 

be able, kan, / sg. pres. ind., 648 ; 

can, 2 sg. pres. ind., 646; 2 plu. pres. 



ind., 423; COWth, /^. ind., 300, 2418, 
etc.; kun thank, thank, 60, 137. 
kunand, see cunand. 

laiked, v.,pt. ind., sported, 3636. 
lare, .f^., learning, 32, 43, 70, no, 127, 

etc. ; counsel, 2003. 
large, adj., liberal, 1327. 
lath, adj., loath, averse, 1123, 1392, 

1542, 2052. 
lathly, adv., in loathsome manner, 1643. 
latoun, sb., latten, brass, 2174; latown, 

2 1 98; laton, 2201. 
law, adv., low, 1596, 2382 ; lawer, comp., 

230. 
lawes, sb., practices, ways of doing, 2537. 
lay, v., wager, 609. 
leche, sb., a physician, a leech, 1137, 

1 193, 1698, 1707. 
leche, v., heal, 1232. 
lechecraft, sb., knowledge of medicine, 

leechcraft, 1104. 
leghe, sb., lie, 3213; ly, 3235, 3858; 

lyes, plu., 2506. 
lele, adj., faithful, leal, 4008. 
lely, adv., faithfully, loyally, 2228. 
leman, sb., paramour, 151 7, 1520, 1539, 

1637, 1 7 14, 2969; sweetheart, 3482, 

3528, 3532, 3536, 3566, 3571, 3601, 

3610, 3614, 3668, 3672. 
len, v., grant, 2578. 
lende, v., remain, 848. 
lenger, adv., longer, 558, 848, 2629, 

3090, 3093, etc.; langer, 2371. 
Lentilioune, 80; Lentiliown, 1467; 

Lentiliowne, 1505 ; Lentilion, (head- 
ing) p. 51. 
lere, v., teach, 73, in, 124, 734, etc.; 

lered, //. ind., 1469, 2537 ; pp., 2394, 

2518; learn, 75, 147, 332, 1106, 2578, 

3970; J sg. pres. subj., 157; leres, 

J sg. pres. ind., 85 ; lerid, pt. ind., 

iic8 ; lered,//., 362. 
les, adj., of less importance or lower 

rank (in phrase les and mare), 384, 



GLOSSARY 



197 



905, 3974, 4037 ; adj. as sb., the 

smaller, 4046. 
lese, sb., falsehood, 3523. 
lese, adj., false, 2595. 
lesing, sb., lymg, 1672; lesyng, 4032; 

leseing, 4163. 
let, v., esteem, hold, 3 pin. pt. ind., 

1526 ; behave, lete, j sg. pt. ind., 527. 
let, 5-'., hinder, prevent, 662 ; stand in 

the way of, injure, impede, 172, 2289. 
let, sb., delay, 877, 1051, 1981, 2694, 

3179' 3976. 

leue, v., believe, 3850. 

leue, 7'., forsake, leave, 940, 2128; 
leuid, //. ind., 720. 

leuenyng, sb., lightning, 2462, 2492, 
2504. 

leuer, adj., comp., liefer, rather, 1296, 
1669, 2563, 4257 ; leuere, 1570, 3169 ; 
leuyr, 2970. 

lewte, sb., loyalty, 3599. 

lichowre, sb., a dissolute person, a para- 
mour, 161 7, 24S8. 

lig, ^-j lie, recline, 11 76, 1722, 1740, 
1743, 1974, etc.; lyg, loio; ly, 1019, 
2835- 3053 ; ligges, 3 sg. pres. ind., 
1788; lay,pt. ind., 219, 233, 247, 811, 
836, etc. ; have position, lay, pt. ind., 
804 {see note), 3333 ; sleep, liggen, 
//., 1 518. 

lightly, adz'., easily, 1079. 

liking, sb., pleasure, comfort, 434 ; like- 
ing, 1898; likyng, 2681; lyking, 
1687, 3476;lykyng, 3359. 

liking, adj., see lykand. 

list, z/.,j sg. pres'. ind., it pleases, 2999 ; 
pt. ind., 1810; lyst, 2425. 

lithe, sb., property, 1 50. 

loge, sb., a lodge, a hut, 2855, 2895. 

loke, v., look at, examine, observe, 
639, 1346, 1361 ; luked, pt. ind., 401, 
856; look to see, 1702, 2672; lokes, 
2 phi. imper., 3985 ; loked, pt. ind., 
1 140; "try (if something can be 
done) " {N. E. D., Look, 3, b\ luke, 



2228 ; take care of, protect, j sg.pres. 

siibj., luke, 2243. 
lordinges, sb., sirs, 41, 145, 3985; lord- 

ynges, i. 
lorn, see lose, 
lose, v., disgrace, bring to ruin, 2344 ; 

destroy, 746 ; lose, lorn, //., 663, 866, 

2348, 2708, 2984. 
losengeri, sB., flattery, 2145. 
loseniowre, sb., deceiver, flatterer, 732 ; 

loseniowres, gen. pin., 2 1 49. 
lowt, v., bow to, bend, stoop, 1596, 

1850; lowted, pt. ind., 771; louted, 

495, 23S2. 
luke, see loke. 
Lumbard, 2182, 2187. 
lurdan, sb., stupid fellow, blockhead, 

2638, 2641; lurdans, ////., 2145. 
lutby, sb., paramour, 1552. 
lykand, adj., pleased, 3522 ; liking, 

(?) vigorous, 1885 (see note). 
lyth, adj., calm, 2763. 

ma, adj., coinp., more, 102 (used as sb^, 
264, 342, 649, 3344, 3972. See mare. 

mai, v., may, can, 112, 341, etc.; may, 
113, 147, etc.; might, pt. ind., 144, 
169, etc.; myght, 14; moght, 194, 
216, 1922, 21 17, 2547, 3368. 

maister, adj., chief, main, 668. 

maistri, sb., expert knowledge, skill, 
1 1 15, 1474; maystri, 2216; mastery, 
maystri, 3150. 

Malquidras, 88 ; Malquidas, 1 84 7, 2 1 1 3. 

make, sb., mate, wife, 3698, 4056. 

maner, sb., kind, sort, 84, 179, 304. 

manere, sb., manor, 783. 

mangery, sb., feasting, 277. 

mare, adj., comp., of more importance, 
more distinguished, (in phrase les 
and mare), 384, 905, 3974, 4037 ; (in 
phrase mare and myn), 425, 1380; 
adj. used as sb., the larger, 4046, 
4047. See ma. 

Mari, 3898. 



198 



GLOSSARY 



mase, j sg. pres. ind. of make, make, 

1032, 1270; 2 phi. i/nper., 3594. 
mawgre, sb., ill will, 1071. 
Maxencius, 129, 3188, (heading) p. no, 

3727- 

mekil, adj., much, 60, 112, 137, 270, 
etc. ; mekill, 247 ; mekyl, 2928, 4303. 

mene, v., lament, 3721 ; communicate 
with, mened, //. ind., 3296. 

meneyng, sb., distress, grief, 3184. 

menje, sb., retinue, 709, 905, 3436, 
3757, 4189, 4298 ; household attend- 
ants, 251 1. 

menisown, sb., dysentery, 1252; meni- 
sowne, 1228; menyson, 1232. 

mensk, v., honor, 2941. 

Merlyn, 2645, 2654, 2657, 2682, 2689, 
2713- 2765. 

mes, sb., mass, 35ti, 3652, 3688, 3765. 

mete, sb., food, 589, 1182, 11 88, 2027, 
2859, etc. ; met, 3598. 

meteliest, adj., well-proportioned, me- 
dium-sized, 67. 

Milisant, 12. 

misauenture, sb., misfortune, ill luck, 
698; misauentoure, 1480. 

moght, see mai. 

molde, sb., ground, earth, 2238, 2259, 
2279, 2667, 2830, 3382. 

most, see mot. 

mot, v., may, 687, 1071, 1085, 1153, 
1444, etc.; must, 1749; mote, 1708; 
most,//", ind., 1155, 1157, 1161, 1162, 
1378, etc. 

mote, v., dispute about, argue, moot, 
3748. 

mun, 7'., shall, will, must, i sg. pres. 
ind., 465, 1372, 1569, 2924; 2 sg. 
pres. ind., 1 8 1 8, 3 1 59 ; j j^. pres. ind., 
756; mund,//. ind., 1 164. 

mydyng, sb., dunghill, 2663, 2673 ; mid- 
ding, 2669. 

myn, adj., of less importance, less dis- 
tinguished (in phrase mare and 
myn), 425, 1380. 



mysfare, sb., ill faring, misfortune, 4132. 
myster, sb., kind, sort, 1574; mystere, 
need, 3314. 

nakend, //., made naked, 562. 

nakins, adj., of no kind, 1934, 2217. 
See nanekins and alkins. 

namly, adv., especially, in particular, 
3203. 

nanekins, adj., of no kind, 2502; nan- 
kins, 3208; nanekyn, 2610; none- 
kins, 2167, 4234; nonkins, 661. See 
nakins and alkins. 

nanes, adv., nonce, 1939. 

Nauern, 1169. .5"^^ note. 

ne, conj., nor, 1 10, 446, etc. 

ne, adv., not, 2219. 

nedder, sb., serpent, adder, 815, 822, 
82.5, 833, 839, 841, 8S2, 891, 894, 897 ; 
neder, 843. 

nedely, adv., necessarily, 1746, 2007. 

nedes, adv., necessarily, 1708, 1749. 

negh, v., approach, 2562 {^MS. neght); 
neghed, pt. ind., 2302. 

negh, adv., near, nigh, 986. 

neghend, adj., ninth, (headings) pp. 73 
and 74. 

nerehand, adv., nearly, almost, 1890, 

2774, 3917- 
nese, sb., nose, 2330. 
neste, adv., next, 2105. 
neuyn, v., name, 2567, 3770. 
Nicholas, Saint, 458. 
nigromancy, sb., necromancy, 2162. 
no, adv., not, 2012. See note, 
nomen, //., taken, 1362, 3263. 
nonkins, see nanekins. 
norices, sb., nurses, 789, 807, 851. 
note, sb., use, employment, service, 754, 

1903 (see note). 
nowper, conJ., neither, 566, 838, 1077, 

2108, 3386, etc.; nowther, 4062. 
noyes, sb., annoyances, discomforts, 

4095. 
nyce, adj., foolish, 285, 1857, 2395. 



GLOSSARY 



199 



0, adj., see a. 

0, /r<;^., on, upon, 95, 219, 1537, 1709, 

3083. 
oboune, adv., above, 3124. 
obout, prep., engaged in, scheming, 

212 1, 2346, 3163, 3206. 
Obowt, adv., 3626 (see note). 
Octouian, 1 3 1 6. See note. 
Qi,prep., off, 658, 1387, 2758, 3298. 
ogayn, /;-^/., against, 1292. 
ogayne, adv., again, 1341 ; ogain, 1352; 

back, ogayn, 468, 488, 943, 2932, 

2958 ; ogain, 1434 ; in return, in reply, 

724; Ogayn, 760. 
omang, adv., meanwhile, 38S8. 
omel, ad"t'., together, both at once, 428 ; 

omell, meantime, 3137. 
omell, /;-67^., among, 3953. 
onane, adv., at once, immediately, 117, 

819, 828, 1034, 1 124, etc. 
onence, /r(?/., against, 3198; onnence, 

close to, beside, 2037. 
or, conj., before, 251, 681, 1278, 1578, 

1982, etc. See are. 
0]7er, adj., second, next, 637. 
0]7er, adv., either, 1907. See note. 
ouer all, adv., everywhere, 786. 
owin, see awin. 
0w]?er, C071J., either, 243, 2513. 

paramowre, adv., if you please, 82 ; 

paramore, 508. 
parted, //., departed, 945. 
pay, v., please, 396 ; payes, j pin. pres. 

itid., 3810; payd, pp., 72, 142, 267, 

543, 1651, etc.; paid, 1761, 2271, 

2978, 3992, 3997. 
payn, sb., labor, pains, 2616; penalty, 

payne, pain, 4286. 
payre, v., injure, damage, 2346. See 

note, 
perfay, inteij., in faith, 242. 
pik, sb., pitch, 1356, 1367, 1372, 1405. 
pine-appel tre, sb., pine tree, 612 (see 

note), 616, 626, 639, 696. 



play, sb., enjoyment, place of ever- 
lasting joy, 21. 
pople, sb., people, 2320; puple, 1063. 
pouert, sb., poverty, 4126. 
powste, sb., power, 3845. 
Poyl, 2215, 2221, 2281 ; Poyle, 1691. 
preche, v., complain to, 3754. See 

note. 
prese, sb., crowd, multitude, 1059, 2596. 
prese, v., drive, press, 3754. 
preuete, sb., secret, 2231, 3391 ; secrets, 

secret plans, 284, 3378. 
prime, sb., high prime, nine o'clock a.m., 

359 (see note), 4167. 
prise, sb., worth, excellence, 270, 448, 

503, 778, 1075, etc. 
proces, sb., story, (general heading) p. i, 

(headings) pp. 20, 24, 32, 35, 43. See 

note to heading p. 20. 
prolong, sb., prologue, (headings) pp. 

49> 57. 63, 73, 81, 87, 95, 104, 108, 

127. See note to heading p. 49. 
prow, sb., advantage, profit, 1892, 

2250. 
puple, see pople. 
puruay, v., collect, 3978 (see note) ; 

procure, 4168; puruaid, //. ind., 217, 

269, 299. 
putayne, sb., prostitute, strumpet, 1791. 
py, sb., magpie, 2402, 2417, 2421, 2423, 

2427, etc. 
pyne, sb., torment, place of torment, 

21 ; anguish, 2375. 

quaint, adj., wise, shrewd, skilled, 90 ; 

quaynt, 3098, 41 15. 
quaintise, sb., cunning, 1919, 3150; 

quayntise, 3 1 58 ; quayntyse, 3402 ; 

cunning device, 2206 ; quayntise, 

3091. 
quell, T'; destroy, 3068. 
quert, sb., prosperity, 4188. 
quik, adj., alive, 895, 1460, 2100. 
quit, see quite, 
quite, adj., white, 1694. 



200 



GLOSSARY 



quite, 7'., requite, repay, 381 ; quit, pt. 
ind., 3401, 41 16; //., 4322; acquit, 
exonerate, 3224 ; deliver, set free, 
quit, //., 3096. 

rad, adj., afraid, 983. 

rafe, see reue. 

raiked, //., strayed, 977. 

rath, adv., quickly, 73, 4197. 

rede, sb., counsel, 910, 1594, 1653, 1820, 

1 83 1, etc. 
rede, adj., red, 2288, 2677, 2821 ; rosy- 

complexioned, 87. 
rede, v., interpret, read, 2662, 2747. 
rede, f ., counsel, 262, 1023, 3204 ; / sg. 

pres. ind., 441, 2253, 2754, 2933, 2937 ; 

I plu. pres. ind., 1891 ; j sg. pres. 

subj., 511. 
reft, see reue. 
rekkes, v., 2 sg. pres. ind., carest, 2558 ; 

roght, pt. ind., 2000. 
remu, v., remove, 2724. 
reproue, sb., reproach, blame, 3197. 
reson, sb., reason, right, 506, 941, 2687, 

4088, 4098, etc.; resoun, 1044; re- 
sown, 1855; explanation, resown, 

2712, 401 1 ; resowne, 2731, 3982; 

story, 1502, 1680; resown, 1506, 

1685, 3812. 
reue, v., deprive of, dispossess, 602 ; 2 sg. 

pres. siibj., 875; 2 sg. iviper., 1976; 

reues, 2 sg. pres, ind., 2546, 3034 ; 

reft, pt. ind., 1016, 1990; //., 737, 

2718; rate, pt. ind., tore, 528, 531. 
reuist, //., fetched in haste, 3682. 
rewful, adj., piteous, 4103. 
rig, sb., back, 885, 1009. 
rig-bane, sb., backbone, 1220. 
rightwis, adj., righteous, 2134, 3038, 

3238, 4296. See note on right wis, 

1. 130. 
rightwisly, ad7>., justly, 3042. 
rike, sb., kingdom, 3001, 3009. 
riue, 7'., arrive, 3876. 
rode, sb., cross, holy rood, 1275, 2446. 



roght, see rekkes. 

Romany, 22S1. 

Romaynes, 3069. 

Rome, 7, 27, 34, etc. 

rosing, sb., boasting, 92. See note. 

ryot, sb., loose and luxurious living, 171. 

sadly, adT'., fully, thoroughly, 58 ; seri- 
ously, 752. 
sakles, adj., guiltless, 4285. 
sal, 7'., shall, / sg. pres. ind., 3, 22, etc.; 

2 sg. pres. 2nd., 72, 347, etc.; j sg. 

pres. ind., 75, 1 16, etc.; sale, 751, 901 ; 

plii.pres. ind., 16, 128, etc.; sail, 3157; 

sale, J phi. pres. sttbj., 1873 '< sold, 

pt. ind., 170, 171, etc. 
samin, adz'., together, 27S; samen, 319; 

samyn, 338. 
san, see sanz. 

sande, sb., a messenger, 2221 ; some- 
thing sent, 3880. 
sanz, prep., without, 913, 1141; san, 

2729 ; saun, 443- 
sare, sb., afflicted part, 1704; misery, 

pain, 1257. 
sare, adj., sore, 906, 2366. 
sare, adv., sorely, 313, 563, 825, 839, 

890, etc. 
Sarezins, 3073, 3144; Sarzins, 3122, 

3136; Sarsins, 3129. 
sarily, adv., sorrowfully, 948. 
sary, adj., doleful, dismal, unhappy, 

596, 2140, etc.; sari, 534, 923, etc. 
Sauiore, Saint, 346. 
saun, see sanz. 
sawes, sb., sayings, things said, 2538, 

4 1 84. 
scathe, see skath. 
scill, see skill. 

scole, sb., schooling, instruction, 1926. 
sege, sb., seat, 193, 195. 
sekerly, adv., certainly, 701, 1376, 2689, 

3609. 
sele, j7'.,good fortune, 1198, 1833, 1971, 

2129, 2985, 3809. 



GLOSSARY 



201 



selkuth, sIk, wonder, 3942 ; selkuths, 

wonderful things, i6. 
semblant, sd., countenance, semblance, 

349; sembland, 2556. 
semly, tn/J., comely, seemly, 1463, 3863. 
sen, conj., since (causal), 151, 339, 447, 

505, 679, etc. ; since (temporal), 647, 

1311,2480. ^^^ sej?en. 
senatoure, sd., senator, 1345, 1399. 
sere, atfj., many, various, 1705, 4054, 

4095. 
sergant, see seriant. 
seriant, sd., servant, retainer, 285 ; ser- 
gant, 768 ; seriantes, ///<., 1421, 1433, 

1531, 1891, 4139, 4157, 4180, 4183, 

4192. 
series, s/>., candles, 2827. See note, 
serued, //., deserved, 1073, 43o6. 
sese, T'., 2 sg. pres. ind. of se, see, 645, 

3732 ; J sg. pres. ind., 822, 869, etc. ; 

2 pin. iniper., 42. 
sese, v., discontinue, cease, 2756, 3944; 

ses, 583 ; sesed,/^. ind., 2760 ; sessed, 

2305 ; appease, cure, 1252. 
sest, adj., sixth, 2794. 
set, //., employed, 360. 
sethed, v.,pt. ind., boiled, 11S6. 
se]7en, adv., afterwards, 1246, 1813, 

3420, 3510, 4326; se]7in, 453, loii, 

1643, 2035, 2392. See sen. 
share, v., j sg. pt. ind., cut, 2820. 
shende, v., ruin, destroy, 2399, 2568, 

3200; shend, 4010, 4292; shent, //., 

1 164, 1380, 2123, 2447; disgrace, 1964; 

injure, shent, //., 542, 548, 552, 748. 
shill, adv., loud, 3835. 
side, adj., wide, ample, 3102. 
sithe, sb., time, 162; sith, 350; syth, 

3574; sij?es, ////., 21 10, 2847 ; sythes, 

3587- 
skath, sb., harm, injury, 575, 1080, 

2286, 2444 ; scathe, 2028. 
skill, sb., reason, right, 2009, 2613; 

skyll, 4268; scill, 1746, 3675; scyll, 

4076. 



sla, z/.jSlay, 302, 412, 568, 585, 876, etc. ; 

slas, 2 sg.pres. ind., 1265 ; slase, 755 ; 

sla, 2 plu. pres. subj., 1083 ; slogh, 
pt. ind., 843, 897, 911, 1087, 1222, 

etc.; slane, //., 820; slain, 2131; 

slaine, 3870 ; slayn, 1 300 ; slayne, 

1358- 
slike, adj., such, 404, 539, 605, 691,858, 

etc.; swilk, 280, 411, 756, 956, 957, 

etc.; swik, 1650. 
slogh, see sla. 

slokkend, v.,pt. ind., ceased, 2194. 
smert, adj., sharp, painful, 2384. 
smertly, adv., quickly, 365, 1265, 1520, 

1989, 2087, etc. ; smeretly, 3538. 
smok, sb., smock, undergarment, 2073. 
snell, adv., quickly, 1875. 
so, adiK, see swa. 
so, conj., as, 3282. See swa. 
SOgat, adv., in this manner, 1049, 1^97 ; 

sogates, 31 81. 
soiet, sb., subject, 510. 
sold, see sal. 
spede, v., prosper, profit, 2218, 3674; 

spedes, 2 sg. pres. ind., 2356. 
spell, sb., story, 2, 1304, 1907 (j^t? note). 
spens, sb., expense, 380. 
sper, v., bolt, bar, 1601 ; sperres, j sg. 

pres. ind., 1599 ; sperd,//. i/id., 1554 ; 

sperid, 3274. 
spill, v., put to death, 2570; spilt,//., 

4290. 
spir, inquire, speer, 4142; spird, pi. 

ind., 4158; spirred, 4159. 
sposail, sb., wedlock, 1142. 
stad,//., placed, situated, 984. 
stede, sb., place, stead, condition, 165, 

671, 680, 1295, 1495, etc.; sted, 1885 

{see note), 
stern, sb., star, 422, 424 ; sternes, p/ji., 

100, 390, 401, 414, 415, etc. 
steuyn, sb., speech, what is uttered, 

2728, 3843. 
still, adj., silent, 309, 432, 445, 1683, 

2357, etc. ; stil, 990. 



202 



GLOSSARY 



still, adv., silently, 1332, 15S8, 2057; 

styll, 1 1 14; continually, ever, 155, 

3836. 
stirt, V; dart, rush, 2 sg. itnper., 2026; 

pt. hid., 1588, 2042, 4209. 
stok, sb., a post, or the trunk of a tree, 

15S8. 
stownde, sb., time, moment, 781, 923; 

stound, 2991. 
strene, sb., stock, blood, 1149. 
stulpes, sb., posts (of a cradle), 837 {see 

note), 854. 
sty, sb., way up, ascent, 3621. 
sumdel, adv., somewhat, 244 ; sumdele, 

1647. 
swa, adv., so, 341, 699, etc. ; SO, then, 

1846, 2378, 2655, 3188. 
swaine, sb., lad, 2684. 
swerel, sb., squirrel, 3104. 
swier, sb., squire, 3276; squier, 201 1, 

4215; swiers, //«/., 1472. 
swik, see slike. 
swike, v., deceive, 1353. 
swilk, see slike. 

swire, sb., neck, 3739 ; swyre, 4319. 
swith, adv., quickly, 354, 2404, 2692 ; 

very, 3687. 
swown, sb., swoon, 863. 
syn, sb., sinew, 1135. See note. 

ta, see tak. 

taisand, pres. pie., poised for shooting, 
2176. 

tak, v., take, 11 26, 1194; 2 pin. pres. 
subj., 152 ; ta, inf., 2008 ; tane, 12 19; 
tase, J sg. pres. ind., 3429, 3702, 
3709; toke, pt. ind., 159, 163, 167, 
173' 197' Ptc. ; tane, //., 158, 1348, 
1563, 1569, 1578, etc.; taken, 1572; 
commit, give, tak, 2 phi. pres. subj., 
962; 2 sg. imper., 59, 71, 82, etc.; 
take, 97 ; takes, 2 plu. it?iper., 41 ; 
toke, /A ind., 199, 207, 1487, etc. 

tane, /r<7«., one, 2205. See ane. 

tane, v., see tak. 



tase, see tak. 

tastes, v., J sg. pres. ind., feels, 1135. 
temped,//., put to trial, tried, 3139. 
tend, adj., tenth, (headings) pp. 81, 

82. 
tene, sb., anger, 991 ; harm, 4281. 
tent, sb., attention, 207, 962, 2184, 2476, 

2525- 
tent, v., give attention to, tentes, 2 sg. 
pres. ind., 2569 ; j plu. pres. ind., 35. 
ter, sb., tar, 1356, 1367. 
thar, v., J sg. pres. ind., need, 2998 ; 

thurt, //. ind., 1522. 
the, v., thrive, 687, 1153, 1447, 1571, 

1632, etc. 
think, v., J sg. pres. ind., it seems, 340, 

449. 1582, 3197' 32tS' 36io;thoght, 

pt. itid., 91, 223, 226, 296, 2663, etc. 
tholed, v., pi. ind., suffered, 923. 
thonord, //., thundered, 2492. 
thonore, sb., thunder, 2513. 
thraw, sb., moment, 915. 
thrawes, v., j sg. pres. ind., throws, 

2062. See note. 
threttende, adj., thirteenth, (headings) 

p. 104. See note. 
thrid, adj., third, 77, 793, (headings) 

pp. 32 and 33, 1032, 2062. 
thrinfalde, adj., threefold, 21 16. See 

note. 
thurt, see thar. 

thusgat, thusgates, see J>usgat. 
tide, sb., time, 421, 975, 1047, 1237, 

3958;tyde, 867, 3139, 3S23. 
i\\, prep., to, 405, 754, 847, 966, 1162, 

etc. (39 times); till, 431, 549, 1242, 

1308, 1872, etc. (15 times); tyll, 3047, 

3335; until, 584, 3207. 
til, conj., until, till, 486, 1024, 1048, 

1479, ^'^c. ; till, 1 03 1. 
tine, v., lose, 557 ; tyne, 2954 ; tynt, //. 

ind., 2573. 
tite, adv., quickly, 580, S24, 998, 1504, 

2186, etc.; tyte, 2316, 2406, 2757; 

titter, comp., 549, 754. 



GLOSSARY 



203 



ti]7and, si>., tidings, 491, 3521 ; tij^andes, 

//«., 3526, 3527 ; tithandes, 3602. 
to, adv., too, 1582, 1857, 2394. 
to-drogh, z'., J sn-. pt. ind., disheveled, 

533- 
toke, see tak. 

tome, sb., leisure, 3, 256, 9S0. 
tome, adj., empty, 1235. 
to-raced, v.,pt. ind., scratched violently, 

lacerated, 535. 
to-rent,//., torn, 541, 551. 
traist, v., trust, confide, 3377 ; traystes, 

2 sg. pres. ind., 3162. 
trauail, sb., labor, trouble, 380, 763. 
trayn, sb., trick, wile, 526. 
trestes, sb., trestles, or large stools, 

4200. See note. 
tyne, see tine, 
tyte, see tite. 

]7a, adj., these, those, the, 384, 1320, 

21 18, 2587, 2872, etc.; ]70, 160. 
■j?are, adv., where, 1845, 3922. 
parfra, adv., therefrom, 650. 
J^artill, adv., thereto, 962, 973, 1749, 

2476, 3693- 
J»e}?in, adv., thence, 1362. 
]7ir, adj., these, 260, 467, 525, 2306, 

2739> 2978, 3843, 4184. 
J?0, see pa. 
J>usgat, adv., thus, 151, 413, 703, 1177, 

1807, etc.; thusgat, 3839; J>usgate, 

4327 ; thusgates, 2456. 

valure, sb., valor, 579. 
vauaceowre, sb., a sub-vassal, 1824. 
venged, //., avenged, 455, 3742. 
vergere, sb., orchard, 175. 
verrayment, adv., truly, 2206. 
vertu, sb., merit, virtue, 11 06; vertuse, 

////., 148; medicinal efficacy, 1212. 
vice, sb., a winding stair, 805. See 

note. 
vire, sb., a crossbow bolt, 2 191. 
Virgil, 2160, 2174, 2197, 2207, 2288. 



vmbithoght, v., pt. ind., bethought, 

3055- 

vmclosed, //., surrounded, 784. 

vnder, see note to 1. 3798. 

vnderlout, sb., subject, 3164. 

vnderon, sb., nine o'clock a.m., 348. 
See note. 

vnderset, v., support with props, under- 
pin, 2290;//. ind., 2297. 

vnhap, sb., misfortune, 411. 

vnhid, pp., 283. See note. 

vnkind, adj., unnatural, 3008. 

vnkowth, adj., strange, uncouth, 4161. 

vnlefeful, adj., unallowable, improper, 

2537- 

vnnethes, adv., scarcely, 3290, 3625. 

yntil, prep., unto, 325, 416, 757, 1814, 
2188, etc.; vntill, 571, 1070, 2569, 
3397. 3515. 3774; vntyll, 3420; 
vntil ane, without exception, unani- 
mously, 416. 

voided, v.,pt. ind., departed, 1663. 

vowchesaue, v., zplit.pres. subj., vouch- 
safe, 3356. See also vowche we safe, 
2262, and vowche it saue, 4172. 

vpbraid, sb., reproach, 2430. 

vp so down, adv., upside down, 835. 

wagged, v., pt. ind., shook, 995. 

waited, see wayt. 

wake, v., watch, 30S6. 

wakemen, sb., watchmen, 161 6, 1621. 

wald, see wil. 

walm, sb., spring, bubble, 2756; walme, 

2760; walmes, //«., 2717, 2719,2721, 

2727, 2739. 
wambe, sb., belly, looi, ion. 
wand, sb., rod, stick, 2459. 
wane, sb., quantity, number, 265, 3i44» 

3542. 
wane, sb., thought; in phrase wil of 

wane, bewildered in thought, 1590. 

See wil. 
war, adj., cautious, 473, 504, 1076, 

3196. 



204 



GLOSSARY 



wardes, sd., guardianship, authority, 

292. 
warisowne, sd., reward, 2225. 
warist, //., cured, 1191. 
wate, see wit. 

wath, sd., harm, danger, 4291. See note. 
wax, v., grow, 12S1, 3725 ; waxes, j sg. 

pres. ind., 647 ; wex, j sg. pt. hid., 

665, 2763, 3931 ; J plu. pt. ind., 858; 

•vfaxen, pp., 1204. 
wayt, 7'., observe, spy out, 4146; seek, 

waited, j sg. pt. ind., 1577. 
wede, sb., garments, accouterments, 

479, 799, 2881. 
welland, pres. ptc, welUng, boihng, 

2716. 
weltered, "'., pt. iftd., turned over, 834. 
wem, sb., fault, 1250. 
wen, adv., when, 2315. 
wer, adj., worse, 1649, 1652, 21 18. 
wer, adv., worse, 1391, 2486. 
were, sb., war, 2212, 3277. 
were, sb., doubt, 116. 
weten, see wit, v. 
weterly, adv., surely, 3499, 4255- 
whannow, ititerj., what now, how now, 

949 (see note), 1603, 2 141. 
wharesom, adv., wherever, 2999. 
whatkin, adj., what sort of, 3092 ; 

whatkyn, 3367. 
whatsom, /rt?;;., whatsoever, 3381. 
whej»er, pron., which of two, 4072, 

4077. 
whepin, adv., whence, 3597. 
whilk, /r(W., which, 51, 4084 (twice), 
widewar, adv., far and wide, 2416. 
wight, adj., fleet, active, 758, 796; 

wighter, comp., 1017. 
wightly, adv., quickly, swiftly, 363, 

3374; wightli, 1395. 
wik, «^'., wicked, 1368, 1864; wiked, 

3789 ; wikked, 2493, 3204- 
wil, adj., at a loss ; wil of rede, at a 

loss in counsel, at one's wit's end. 



1594, 2921 ; wil of wane, bewildered 

in thought, 1590. 
wils, adv., whilst, 1344; whils, 761, 

2332, etc. 
win, v., make one's way, 1372, 3368, 

3387. 3500; wyn, 1525, 3346; wan, 

J sg.pt. ind., 1598. 
wit, sb., knowledge, wisdom, 49, 94, 

etc.; mind, wits, 532, 1107; wittes, 

pill., 113. 
wit, v., know, 189, 328, 359, 1146, 

2446, etc.; weten, 11 78 (see note); 

wate, / sg. pres. ind., 1025, 2105; 

2 sg. pres. ind., 1795 ; j sg. pres. ind., 

2233 ; 2 sg. pres. subj., 3060 ; wote, 

/ sg. pres. ind., 3842 ; j sg. pres. ind., 

1750; wit, 2 phi. pres. ind., 557; 

2 pill, imper., 1368 ; wist, /if. ind., 224, 

475, 1229, 1327, etc.; //. subj., 1082, 

1234, 1391. 
with, /r^/., with, 40, 122, etc.; by, 784, 

930, 1300, 1496, 1869. 
wittily, adv., wisely, 2130. 
witty, adj., wise, sensible, 211, 3216. 
wode, adj., mad, daft, 520, 527, 532, 

554, 689, etc. 
wodnes, sb., madness, 862. 
WOgh, sb., evil, calamity, 912, 1253. 
won, adj., accustomed, 230, 729, 988, 

1076, 1454, etc. ; wone, 3652. 
won, v., dwell, 1804, 4146; wons, j sg. 

pres. ind., 3384 ; WOnd, pt. ind., 288, 

366, 1418, 2812, 3237, etc.; wonand, 

pres. ptc, 1312 ; wond, //., 4067. 
wonder, adj., wonderful, 766. 
wonder, adv., wonderfully, 250, 796, 

1426, 2691, 2986, etc. 
wont, v., be accustomed, j sg. pt. ind., 

1404 (see note) ; pp., 972. 
wonyng, sb., dwelling, 3355. See won, v. 
worthed, //., become, 68 5. 
wregh, v., betray, 11 66; wries, 3 sg. 

pres. ind., 2505. 
wreing, sb., betrayal, 2438. 



GLOSSARY 



205 



wreke, sfi., violence, 429. 

wreke, z>., avenge, 3172, 3738; 3 s§ 

pres. stibj., 3038. 
wrethed, pp., angered, 745, 3787. 
wries, see wregh. 
wrot, v., pt. hid., rooted, 992. 
wyfe, sb., woman, 409. 



yen, see eghe. 

ymp, sb., scion, 613, 617, 641, 645, 654, 



etc. 



Ynde, sb., India, 2274, 2943. 
Ypocras, 1093, 1102, 11 16, 11 20, 11 23, 

etc.; Ipocras, 1205; Ypocrase, 1086, 

1 109. 



INDEX 



[The references are to the pages.] 



A[uchinleck] MS., xxxvii, xliii-xlv. 
A* (the group of MSS. typified by the 

prose text pubhshedby A. d'Ancona), 

xxiii, xxvii, xxix-xxxvi, Ux. 
d, Anglo-Saxon, development of, in C 

and R, Ixxiii, Ixxiv. 
Aban Lahiql, xv. 
Abbreviations, table of, 148 ; in C, Ixix ; 

in R, Ixxi. 
Abulfazel, Ayar Danis/i, Ixxix. 
Accent, reversal of, Ixxvi ; wrenching 

of, Ixxvii, 167, 172; lines of three 

accents, Ixxvii, 151. 
Adenet le Roi, Cleomades, xcv, xcvi. 
Adolphus, Fables, xc. 
^sop, Fables, Ixxix, xcviii, ci-ciii, 179. 
Ag/it used impersonally, 168. 
Aghteld, 182. 
Ahlquist, A., cxiii. 
Al to-drogh, 155. 
Alvnder, 184. 
'AXaftij', ex. 
Alakesa Kathd, Ixxix. 
Albertinus, A., Der tcittschen recreation 

oder Lusthaiis, Ixxxvi. 
Aide : balde, the rhyme, 1 50. 
Alexander, 163. 

Alphabet of Tales, An, xc, xcviii, 177. 
Alton, J., XXX. 

Amabile di Continentia, xxviii, xxix. 
Amatores, xxvi, 177. 
American editions of The Seven Sages, 

xxi. 
Amici, xxvi, cxii. 
Amis and Amiloji7i, cxii, 150. 
Amplification peculiar to C and R, 153, 

156, 158, 163, 174, 175, 177, 181, 182, 

183, 1S4. 



Anchialus, Michael, 151. 
And, when abbreviated, 149. 
Andreopulus, Michael, xiii. 
Andrew of Ratisbon, xcvi. 
Anvdr-i Snhailt, Ixxix, Ixxxiii, xcviii. 
Anxilles, 151. 

Aper, XV, xvii, xx, xlix ; originals and 
analogues, Ixxxii-lxxxiv ; C text of, 

33~35- 

Ar[undel] MS., xxxviii, xlv, xlvi. 

Arabic versions of the Book of Sindibdd, 
xi, xiii, xiv, xvi, xci, xcvii. 

Arabian Nights, xiv, xcviii, ex. 

Arbor, xlix, Iv, Ivi, Ixxviii ; C text of, 
21-24. 

Aristophanes, Clouds, Ixxxvi. 

Armenian version of H, xxvi. 

Arnold of Liibeck, Chronica Slavorum, 
xcv. 

Ars Metrike, confusion with Arith- 
metica, 153. 

Arthour and Merlin, 175. 

Arthtir and Gorlagon, Ixxix. 

As [loan] MS., xxxvi, xxxix-xli, Iv-lvii, 
172-174. 

Ashby, S. R., viii. 

As-Samarquandl, xiv. 

Aurbacher, L., Fi)i Volksbiichlein, cii. 

Authorship of Oriental versions, xi-xv ; 
of the Continental versions, xviii- 
XXXV ; of the Middle English ver- 
sions, Ivii, Iviii ; of the later English 
versions, Ixi-lxiii, Ixvi. 

Avis, XV, xvii, xx, xl, xlix ; originals and 
analogues, xcvii-xcix ; C text of, 82- 
87. 

Ayrer, J., cv. 

Azraqi, xv. 



207 



2o8 



INDEX 



B [alliol] MS., xxxviii, xlvii, xlviii. 

Backstrom, P. O., xxv. 

Baethgen, F., xii. 

Baldo, Alter Esopiis, Ixxix. 

Bancillas, 151. 

Bandello, Novelle, Ixxxvi. 

Barachijah ha-Nakdan, Mischle Schii- 

alim, cii. 
Barham, R. H., The Ingoldsby Legends, 

cv. 
Baring-Gould, S., Ixxviii, xci. 
Bartoli and Sansoni, Ixxxvi. 
Bayeux Tapestry, ci. 
Beal, S., Ixxix. 
Bede, xcvi, cviii. 
Bedier, J., xv. 

Bendo and Richardo, Ixxxvi. 
Benfey, T., xi, xiii, Ixxviii, Ixxx, xcvii, 

cv, cviii. 
Bergmann, B., A'oviadische Streifereien, 

Ixxx. 
Beriniis, L ^Histoire du Chevalier, Ixxxvi. 
Berni, Orlando Innamorato, ex. 
Betterton, T., The Amorous Widow, 

xci ; Barnaby Brittle, xci. 
Bibbiena, Cardinal, La Calandria, xci. 
Bickerstaffe, I., The Ephesian Matron, 

civ. 
Bidpai, Fables of, Ixxix, Ixxxiii, c. 
Black, G. F., Ixii. 
B lay he, i 52. 
Boccaccio, Decameron, Ixxxix, xci, xcii, 

xciv, xcviii. 
Bojardo, Orlando Lnnamorato, ex. 
Bokenam, O., Lives of Saints, 163. 
Bolt es fid sone shot, for t>aire, 1 58. 
Boner, U., Edelstein, cii. 
Book of Sindibdd, xi-xv, xvii, xix, xx. 
Borowd, 168. 
Botermans, A. J., xxiv. 
Bourdeilles, P. de. Vies des Dames 

Galatites, cm. 
Boys Saynt Marline, 155. 
Brandl, A. L., xxxvii, Ixxvi. 
Brede, on, 170. 



Brentano, C, cv. 

Bretonne, Restif de la, Les Contem- 

poraines, cv. 
Bright, J. W., vii, 166, 170, 177. 
Brinon, P., VEphisienne, ciii. 
Brown, A. C. L., cv. 
Browne, W. H., viii. 
" Bruder Werner," Minnesinger, Ixxxiii. 
Brush, M. P., ciii. 
Buchner, G., xxiv, Ixi, Ixii. 
Biihel, Hans von, xxv. 
Billow, E. von, Novellenbiich, xciii, civ. 
Bjird, 176, 177. 
Burrant, Robert, Ix. 
Burton, R., Ixxx. 
Bus, 161. 
Bushes, 160. 

C (MS. Cotton Galba E. ix), vi, xxxvi, 

xxxvii, xlii, xliii, Ixvii-lxxvii. 
Cabinet des Fees, Le, Ixxxiii, cv. 
Callaway, M., Jr., viii. 
Campbell, J. F., Ixxvi, cxi. 
Campbell, K., v, xlvi, xlviii, xlix, liv, 

lix, 176. 
Campeggi, A., Novelle amorosi, ciii. 
Canis, xv, xx, li, Iv, Ivi ; originals and 

analogues, Ixxviii-lxxxii ; C text of, 

26-32. 
Capitalization, Ixix, Ixxi. 
Cariyd-Pitaka, Ixxxiii. 
Carteromaco, N., Ricciardetto, ciii. 
Cassel, P., xi, xiii, 151, 152. 
Cassiodorus, x.xx. 
Castoiement a''iin Fere h son Fils, Le, 

xc, xcviii. 
Catalan MS. of L, xxxi. 
Caton, 152. 
Catoun, Bo he of, 152. 
Caxton's Aesop, xcviii, cii. 
Cento Novelle Antiche, Le, ciii. 
Cesari, A., xxviii, xxix, ci. 
Chambers, E. K., 179. 
Chambers and Jones, Asiatic Miscellany, 

Ixxix. 



INDEX 



209 



Chamisso, A. von, civ. 
Changes made in the text, vii. 
Chapbook versions, Ixiii-lxvi. 
Chapman, George, The Widdoives 

Tears, civ. 
Charax Pergamenus, Ixxxvi. 
Charleton, W., The Ephesian Matron, 

civ. 
Chartres MS. of K, xxvii, xxviii. 
Chaucer, xciv, xcvi, xcvii, xcix, 152, 

154. 157. 158' 162, 168, 177, 181. 
Chettle, H., Ixiii. 
Chretien de Troies, Yvain, cv. 
Clouston, W. A., xiv, Ix, l.xi, Ixxviii- 

Ixxx, Ixxxv, Ixxxvi, Ixxxviii, xc, xciii, 

xciv, xcvii, xcviii, ci, cix, cxi, cxii. 
Comedies noiivelles, cv. 
Comparetti, D., xiii-xv, xxi, Ixxxvi, 

xciv-xcvi, xcviii, cxii. 
Comparisons, conventional, 151. 
Conrad of Querfurt, xciv. 
Continental versions, xvii-x.xxv. 
Copland edition, xxiv, Ixi, Ixii, Ixvi. 
Coronedi-Berti, C, Ixxxvi. 
Cosmas, xcvi. 
Cosquin, E., Ixxxvii. 
Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce, library of, 

Ixvii. 
Cotton MS. of The Seven Sages, see 

C. 
Cotton-Rawlinson redaction, Ixvi-lxxvii. 
cr (lost source of C and R), xlii, xliii, 

Ixxii-lxxvi. 
Crane, T. F., xxiii, Ixxxvi, xcvii, xcviii, 

cix, cxii. 
Cressent, xliii, 168. 
Qitkasaptati, Ixxxiii, xc, xcviii. 
Cursor Miindi, Ixxviii, 151, 168, 185. 
Curtin, J., Ixxx. 

D (Cambridge University MS. Dd. I. 

17), xxxix, xli, li-lv. 
D* (" Version Derimee "), xxiii, xxx, 

xxxi, xxxiv, xxxv. 
Dafakumdracarita, cv. 



Dacier, M., ci, cii. 

Damien, Jehan, xxx. 

D'Ancona, A., xxxii, xxxiii. 

Dancourt, F. C, xci. 

Danish translation of H, xxv. 

Dasent, G. W., Ixxxvii. 

Date of parent version, xi ; of Eastern 
versions, xi-xv ; of parent Western 
version, xv, xxi ; of other Continental 
versions, xix, xxiii-xxxiv ; of the 
Middle English MSS., xxxvii-xl, lix, 
Ixvii, Ixx, Ixxii ; of the lajer English 
versions, Ix-lxii. 

Day, John, Ixiii. 

Deifvan Brtigghe, De, Ixxxvii. 

Dekker, Thomas, Ixiii. 

Delia Lucia, G., xxviii. 

Deschamps, E., Poesies Morales, cii. 

Deslongchamps, L., xviii, xxx. 

Dialect of Middle English MSS., 
xxxvii-xl, xliii, Ixxiii-lxxvi. 

Diocletian, xxii, xxxiii, xxxiv, 149. 

Dolopathos, xii, xv, xviii-xxi, Ixxviii, 
Ixxix, xc, cix. 

Douce, F., Ixi, Ixvi. 

Dozon, L. A. H., Contes alhanais, 
Ixxxvii. 

Dragomanov, M., Ixxxviii. 

Dramatic version by Dekker, Chettle, 
Haughton, and Day, Ixii, Ixiii ; by 
Sebastian Wildt, xxv. 

Dream-begotten love, 181. 

Du Halde, P. J. B., civ. 

Dunlop, J. C, Ixxxix, xci, xciv, 181. 

Dutch MSS. and editions, xxv, xxxiii. 

Dyocletianus Leben, xxv. 

E[gerton] MS., xxxviii, xlvi, xlvii, 185, 

186. 
-e, syllabic final, Ixxiii. 
Edoke, 153. 
Ehret, P., xx. 
Ellis, G., xxxvii. 
Els, 171. 
Emendations, textual, vii, Ixviii. 



210 



INDEX 



Emperor, name of, xii, xx, xxii, xxiii, 
xxvii, xxix, xxxi, xxxiii, xxxiv, 149. 

Empress, first, xx, xxxiv, 149. 

Empress, second, xii, xx, xxix, xxxiv. 

English versions, xxxv-lxxvii ; Middle 
English versions, xxxvi-lix ; later 
English versions, Ix-lxvi ; Cotton- 
Rawlinson redaction, Ixvi-lxxvii. 

E7-asio, xxviii, xxix. 

Erl of Tolous, 149, 157. 

Es used with plural subject, 168, 170, 
183. . 

Etherege, G., The Matrons, cv. 

Etienne de Bourbon, Ixxix, cii. 

Etlar, C, Ixxxvii. 

Ett, 167. 

European versions other than English,, 
xvii-xxxv. 

F (Cambridge University MS. Ff. II. 

38), xxxix, xl, xlviii-li, 159, 164, 165, 

178. 
Falconer, F., xiv. 
Eandes, 154. 

" Fauell, Christofer," Ixx. 
Faveurs et les Disgraces de P Amour, Les, 

oil les Amans heiireiix, xciii, ciii, cxi. 
Fayrest jyat on fote myght go, pe, 150. 
Feast of Fools, the, 179. 
ffiox F, 150. 
Fiften winters., 184. 
Filia, xxiii, xxxi, xxxiv. 
Firenzuola, Discorsi de gli animali, xcix. 
Fischer, H., xxiv, xxv. 
Fischer, R., 184. 
Fisetis (or Laiirin), xxx. 
Flamenca, Le Rotnan de, cxi. 
Flaubert, G., ciii. 
Fleur des histoires, xcvi. 
Florentine, xxii, xxxiv, 150. 
Forty Vezirs, The, Ixxxv, xcviii, cv. 
Four shore, 175. 
Foiire as dissyllable, 1 53. 
Framework common to Eastern and 

Western groups, xi, xii. 



Frazer, J. G., Ixxviii, Ixxxv. 

French versions, xviii-xxiv, xxvii-xxxv. 

Fuzelier, L., ciii. 

Gaaf, W. van der, 151, 154, 168, 176, 

1 78. 
Gaiie obowt, 183. 
Gare, vnder hyr, 172. 
Gaza, XX, xxi, li, cviii ; originals and 

analogues, Ixxxv-xc ; C text of, 45- 

49. 
Genitive, uninflected, 153. 
Gerard le filz Thierry, xcvii. 
Gerard Nories son, 185. 
Gerhard von Minden, cii. 
German versions, xxv. 
Gesta Romanortcfn, xxiv, xxvii, Ixxix, 

xciv, xcvi, xcviii, 170. 
Giovanni, Ser, // Pecorone, Ixxxvi, xcvi. 
Goedeke, K., xv, xxii, xxiii, xxxiv. 
Goldsmith, Oliver, The Citizen of the 

World, civ. 
Gollancz, H., xii. 
Goodwin, G., civ. 
Goonetilleke, W., Ixxxvii. 
Gower, Ixxvii, xcii, xcvi, xcvii, 150, 162. 
Grapignan on Arleqiiin procureiir, ciii. 
Greek version, see Syntipas. 
Griffis, W. E., fapanese Fairy World, 

Ixxxiii. 
Griffith, R. H., viii. 
Grimm, J. and W., Ixxx, cxiii. 
Grisebach, E., ci, ciii-cv. 
Griibel, G. C., civ. 
Gueullette, T. S., cxi. 
Gusztav, H., xxvi. 
Guy of Warwick, 157, 162. 

3 graphically the same as z, 149. 
3^, interchange with /<??/, 152. 

"^listoria Sep tern Sapientum'], xvii, 
xviii, xxiv-xxvii, Ixi, Ixxviii, Ixxxi, 
Ixxxiii, Ixxxiv, xc, xciv, ex, cxii, 150, 
162, 178, 182. 



INDEX 



21 I 



Hagen, F. H. von der, Gesainmtaben- 

teiie/-, xcv, xcviii. 
Hahn, J. G. von, Ixxx, Ixxxiii, cxiii. 
Hall, J., Ixvil, 150, 159, 161, 177, 182, 

1S4. 
Halliwell, J. O., xxxix, Ixiii, 152, 162, 169. 
Hamlet, Ixxxv. 
Hammer, J. von, cxi. 
Ha7id-haueing, Ixxiv, 158. 
Hanel, M., cii. 

Harrison, B., Matrona Ephesia, civ. 
Haughton, William, Ixiii. 
Hazlitt, W. C, Ix, Ixv. 
Heine, Rha7npsinit, Ixxxvi. 
Heinrich von Veldeke, E7ieide, xcv. 
Heinse, W., Begebenheiten des Enkolp, 

cii. 
Helie, xxxiv, li, 149. 
Herber, 157. 
Herbert, redactor of the Dolopathos, 

xviii-xx. 
Herod, c. 

Herodotus, Ixxxvi, Ixxxviii. 
Hershon, P. I., civ. 
Hervieux, L., cii. 
Hill, Richard, Ivii. 
Him changed hew, 185. 
Him thoght scorn, 151. 
Hippocrates, 160. 
Historia Calumniae Novercalis, xxiv, 

xxvi. 
Historia Septem Sapientiini, see H. 
Hitopadesa, Ixxix, xcii. 
Hock, C. F., xcv. 
Howard, Thomas, The Seven Wise 

Mistresses of Rome, Ixxxi. 
Hundred Mery Talys, A, cv. 
Hnon of Bitrdeux, 161. 
Hyde, John, xxxviii. 

I (" Versio Italica "), xxii, xxviii, xxix, 

xxxiii. 
Icelandic MS. of H, xxvi. 
/esse, 152. 
Image dtc Monde, xcv. 



Imbert, B., cv, cxi. 

Imperative, inflection of, 156. 

Impersonal verb with subject unex- 
pressed, 151. 

Inaccuracies m Weber's edition of A, 
149. 

Itichisa, XX, xxiii, xc ; originals and 
analogues, cix-cxii; C text of, iio- 
127. 

Indian version of Book of Sindibdd, xi. 

Indirect discourse, sudden transition 
from, to direct discourse, 155. 

Infinitive unexpressed, 157. 

Insertions, scribal, in C, Ixvii ; in R, 
Ixxi. 

Interrelation of the Oriental versions, 
xii-xv ; of the Continental versions, 
xx-xxxv ; of the Middle English 
MSS., xl-Ivii; of later English ver- 
sions, Ixi, Ixii, Ixvi ; of C and R, Ixxi, 
Ixxii. 

Inwith, 152. 

lolo Manuscripts, Ixxx. 

Ipomedon, 157, 184. 

Isopo Laiirenziano, The, cii. 

It was nothing, 1 50. 

Italian versions, xxviii, xxix, xxxii, 
xxxiii. 

lubarb, 1 53. 

Jacobs, Joseph, Ixxxvi, xcvii, ci. 

Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda A urea, 
xcvi. 

Jacques de Vitry, Exempla, cii. 

Janus, cviii, 180. 

Jataka, The, Ixxxiii, xcix. 

Jenkins, D. E., Ixxx. 

Joannes de Alta Silva, xviii-xx. 

Joannes Junior, xxiii. 

John of Capua, Directorium vitae 
humanae, Ixxix, xcviii, xcix. 

John of Salisbury, Polycraticus, cii. 

Johnson, Charles, The Ephesian Ma- 
tron, civ. 

Johnston, O. M., cxi. 



212 



INDEX 



Jones, E., Ixxx. 
Jones, G. H., xxxiii. 

K (version edited by Keller), xv, xx- 

xxii, xxvii, xxviii, xxxiv, xxxv. 
Kalde, me esful, 178. 
Kalila and Dimna, Ixxix, Ixxxiii, c. 
Kaluza, M., 182. 
Kanor, xxx. 
Kathd-Sarit-Sdgara, Ixxix, Ixxxiii, 

Ixxxvii. 
Keller, H. A., xv, xx, xxv, xxvii, Ixi, 

Ixxviii, Ixxxv, xc, xci, xciii, xciv, xcvii, 

ci, cv, cix, cxi, cxii. 
Kiddushin, Tosiphtaoth to, civ. 
Kin-koii-ki-kouan, civ, cvii. 
Kirchhof, H. W., Weiidunmiith, Ixxix, 

cv. 
Kirkman, F., xxix. 
Kitdb-es-Sindhdd, xv. 
Kittredge, G. L., vii, viii, Ixxvii, Ixxviii, 

Ixxix, Ixxxv, 150, 151, 155, 157, 158, 

160, 167, 168, 179. 
Klemming, G. E., xxv, xxxiii. 
Klingemann, A., Die Wittwe von Ephe- 

sus, ciii. 
Knight de la Tour Landry, The Book of 

the, xcix. 
Knowles, J. H., Ixxx. 
Kohler, R., xviii, Ixxxv, Ixxxvii, ci, cxii. 
Kolbing, E., v, vii, xxxvii, xxxix, xlii, 

Ivii, 150, 151, 157, 175, 176. 
Kunala and A9oka, story of, xi. 

L (group of MSS. of the type of the first 

text edited by Leroux de Lincy), 

xxiii, xxxi, xxxiv, xxxv. 
La Fontaine, J. de, Contes et Nouvelles 

en Vers, ciii. 
La Marche, A. L. de, cii. 
La Motte, Houdart de, La Matrone 

d^Ephl'se, ciii. 
Laing, D., xl, Ixii, civ. 
Lai Behari Day, Ixxxviii. 
Landau, M., xv, xvii, Ixxxix, xc, xcii. 



Lane, John, xcvi. 

Largeau, V., Flore Saharienne, Ixxxvii. 

Lat zue be, 1 54. 

Later English versions, Ix-lxvi. 

Latin MSS., xviii, xix, xxii-xxviii. 

Laurin (or Fisetis), xxx. 

Le Gay, La Matrone d'Ephese, ciii. 

Leger, L., Ixxxvii. 

Legrand, £., Ixxxvi, civ. 

Legrand d'Aussy, P. J. B., Ixxix, xc, 

xciii, ex. 
Leland, C. G., xcvi. 
L^entilioitne, 151. 
Lerch, P., xxvi, civ. 
Lered, scribal error ior /ered, 178. 
Leroux de Lincy, A. J. V., xxiii, xxx, 

xxxii. 
Leskien and Brugmann, Ixxxviii. 
Lessing, G. E., Die Matrone von Ephe- 

stts, ciii. 
L'Estrange, R., Ixxix. 
Liber de Septem Sapientibus, xxiii. 
Libro de los Engannos, xiii, xvi. 
Libro iviperiale, xcvi. 
Lidzbarski, M., Ixxxvii, cxi. 
Liebrecht, F., Ixxxvii, Ixxxix. 
Liking sted, in, 1 66. 
Lines repeated in C, 149; too short, 

Ixxvii, 151, 156, 178, 179. 
Lithuanian text of H, xxi. 
Llewelyn, xxxiii. 
Llyfr Coch o LLergist, xxxiii. 
Lohengrin, xx. 

Lonelich, H., LLoly Grail, 160. 
Longfellow, Morituri Sahiianius, xcv. 
Lonnrot, E., Ixxx. 
Lost MSB., xi, xiv, xv, xxiii, xxxiv, xli, 

Ixxii. 
Lncinitts, xx. 

Liidiis Septem Sapientum, xxv. 
Luzel, F. M., Ixxxvii, cxiii. 
Lydgate, John, Bochas, xcv. 

"ULlale Marrastre\ xxii, xxix, xxx. 
Macaulay, G. C., Ixxxvi, xcii, 162. 



INDEX 



213 



Macler, F., xii. 
Madan, F., Ixx. 
Mahdvastu Avaddna, Ixxxiii. 
Male Marrastre, see M. 
Malespini, C, Ditcente Novelle, cxi. 
Malquidras, 151. 
Manfredi, E., ciii. 
Marguetel de St. Denis, ciii. 
Marie de France, cii, ciii, cxi, 179. 
Marq^iies de J\otne, xxi, xxx, xxxiv. 
Massmann, H. F., xciv, xcv, xcvi. 
Masuccio, S., A'ovellino, xcii, cxi. 
Masudl, XV. 

Jllatheoliis, Le Livre de, cii. 
Matron of Ephesus, The, ci-cviii. 
Maxencius, 152. 
Maxwell, W. E., Ixxx. 
Me think, 154. 

Mead, W. E., vii, 158, 161, 165. 
Afedicus, xliii, li ; originals and ana- 
logues, Ixxxiv, Ixxxv ; C text of, 

38-43- 

Meir, Rabbi, civ. 

Melchior, 151. 

Mercator, xxxiii. 

Meril, E. du, xciv. 

Merlin, xciv, xcvi, c, ci, 175, 176. 

Meter of English MSS., xxxviii-xl, lix, 
Ixii, Ixxvi, Ixxvii, 151, 153. 

Meyer, P., xxviii, xxxi. 

Middle English MSS., brief descrip- 
tion, xxxvi-xl ; interrelation, xl-lvii ; 
authorship, Ivii, Iviii ; place and date 
of composition, Iviii, lix : source, lix ; 
the Cotton-Rawlinson redaction, Ixvi- 
Ixxvii. 

Milicent, xxxiv, li, 149. 

Milton, John, 163. 

Minot, L., 161. 

Mirabilia urbis Romae, xcvi. 

Mischle Sindbad, xi-xiii, xvi, xvii. 

Moliere, George Dandiii, xci. 

Montaiglon, A. de, and Raynaud, G., 
cii. 

Morlini, G., Novellae, cviii. 



Morris, R., v, Ixvii, 150, 171. 

Murko, M., xxvi. 

Musa, xi, xiii, xiv, xvi. 

Musaeus, J. A., cv. 

Mussafia, A., xviii, xxii, xxiii, xxviii, 

xxxi. 
Musset, A. de. La Coupe et les Levres, 

civ. 
Myll, G., Buke of Liif, civ. 

Nachshebl, xiv, xix. 

Napier, A. S., vi, Ixx. 

Nathing brotun, 151. 

Naver7i, 161. 

Neckam, Alexander, xciv, xcvi, cix, 170. 

N^eght, scribal error for iiegh, 175. 

Neveletus, I. I., cii. 

No, 167. 

Noldeke, T., xii, Ixxxvi. 

North, T., xcviii. 

Northern words, Ixxv, Ixxvi, 185. 

A^overca, xxiii, xxxi, xxxii, xxxiv, xxxv. 

Nyrop, C, Ixxxvii. 

Octaviaii, 150, 162. 

QLillets de recreatio7is, cxi. 

Oesterley, H., xviii, xix, Ixxviii, xc, xci, 

xciv, xcvi, cv. 
Ogilby, John, The Ephesian Matron, 

civ. 
Oniietice, 167. 
Order of stories, xxviii, xxxi, xxxiii, 

xxxiv. 
Originals and analogues, Ixxviii-cxiv. 
Orologmm Sapientiae, Ixi. 
0}>er spell, hir liked noght his, 166. 

Painter, W., The Palace of Pleasure, 

Ixxxvi. 
Panjab Azotes and Queries, Ixxx. 
Pantschatantra, Ixxix, Ixxxiii, cviii. 
Parallel passages in D and A, lii-liv ; in 

As and C, Ivi, Ivii. 
Paris, Gaston, xv, xvi, xviii-xx, xxii, xxiii, 

xxvi, xxvii, xxx, xxxi, Ixii, cviii, cix. 



214 



INDEX 



Participle, present, ending of, in C and 

R, Ixxiv, Ixxv. 
Paschke, P., xxv. 
Past Days in India, Ixxx. 
Paton, L. A., cxi. 
Pauli, J., Schiinpf tmd Ertist, Ixxix, 

xci. 
Pausanias, Ixxix, Ixxxvi. 
Payne, J., ex. 
Pay re, 172. 
Paz y Melia, A., xxiii. 
Peck, H. T., ci. 
Pedroso, Z. C, Ixxxvii. 
Peli'arttiemts, xxx. 
Percy, Thomas, cii, civ, cv. 
Periers, Bonaventure des, xciii. 
Perottus, N., cii. 
Persian versions, see Aban Lahiql, As- 

SamarquandT, Azraql, Nachshebi, and 

Sittdibdd-ndm eh . 
Pesikta des Rab Kahana, Ixxx. 
Petras, Paul, xxxix, xlii, li, lix, Ixii. 
Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon, cii, cv. 
Petrus Alphonsus, Disciplina Clei'icalis, 

xc, xcviii. 
Phaedrus, ^Esop, cii, cv. 
Philip de Thaun, Li Cutupoz, cviii. 
Pieris, H. A., Ixxx. 
Pine-appel tre, 1 56. 
Pinson, R., Ixvi. 
Pitre, G., Ixxxvi, cxi. 
Place of composition of parent version, 

xi; of parent Western version, xviii ; 

of Middle English MSS., Iviii. 
Platen, A. von, Ixxxvii, cxi. 
Plautus, Miles Gloriosus, ex. 
Plecie, 185. 

Pleonastic pronoun, 152. 
Plomp, H. P. B., xxxii, lix. 
Polish translation of H, xxvi. 
Pontianus, xxiv, xxvi. 
Popple, W., The Ephesian Matron, civ. 
Porus, King, xii. 
Potiphar's wife and Joseph, 155. 
Prato, S., Ixxxv, Ixxxvi, Ixxxvii. 



Present indicative, inflection of, Ixxv, 

153- 
Preterite substituted for present, 152. 
Preue note, litel }>ai mai of, 166. 
Prevost, Abbe, xciv. 
Pricke of Co}tscie?tce, Ixxvii, 168, 179, 

185. 
Prime, 154. 
Prince, name of the, xx, xxii, xxiii, xxvii, 

xxviii, xxix, xxxiii, xxxiv, 1 50. 
Proces, 156. 
Prohle, H., Ixxxvii. 
Prolong, 163. 
Prym and Socin, Ixxxvii. 
Punctuation in C, Ixx. 
Purfoot, T., Ixv, Ixvi. 
Pur nay, 184. 
Piiteus, xix, XX, xlix, cix ; originals and 

analogues, xc, xci; C text of, 51-56. 

R[awlinson] MS., vi, xxxvii, xliii, Ixx- 
Ixxvi. 

r, curled, Ixix, Ixxi, 149, 150, 155. 

Radet, J..B., La Matrone d'' Ephese, ciii. 

Radloff, W., Ixxxvii, cviii, cxiii. 

Rahbek, K. L., ciii. 

Rajna, P., xxviii. 

Ralston, W. R. S., Ixxxvii, cxiii. 

Rama Ayen, C, Ixxx. 

Rawlinson, R., Ixx. 

Rawlinson MS. of The Seven Sages, 
see R. 

Reference, faulty, 158. . 

Relationship of C and R, Ixxi, Ixxii ; see 
also Interrelation of the Oriental ver- 
sions, etc. 

Relative omitted, 160. 

Renars Contrefais, xcvi. 

Rhymes, imperfect, 153. 

Riotous Son, The, xlix, 164, 165. 

Ritson, J., Iviii, Ixi, Ixvii. 

Rivey, P. de la, xcix. 

Riviere, J., Ixxxvii. 

Robert, A. C. M., cii. 

Rodeffer, J. D., 153, 156, 168, 171. 



liNDEX 



215 



Roediger, M., xxviii. 

Rolland, John, xxiv, xxxvi, Ixii. 

Rolle of Hampole, R., Iviii, 171. 

Roma, xxiii, xxvi, xxvii, xl, xlvi, li ; orig- 
inals and analogues, cviii, cix ; C text 
of, 104-108. 

Romagnoli, G., xxviii. 

Romulus, ALsop, cii, 179. 

Rosing, 152. 

Roth, K. L., xciv. 

Rouse, W. H. D., Ixxxiii, xcix. 

Route of transmission to the Occident, 
xvii. 

Rubrics in C, Ixviii, Ixix ; in R, Ixxi. 

S (version preserved in the Scala Celi), 

xxii-xxiv, xxxi, xxxiv. 
Sahara, J., civ. 

Sachs, Hans, Ixxxvii, xci. • 

Safe ^ottre grace, to, 158. 
Sages, names of the, xii, xx, xxii, xxiii, 

xxix, xxxiii, xxxiv, Iv, 151. 
Salvatio Romae, xciv, xcvi, xcvii, cix, 

170. 
Sansovino, A., Cento N'ovelle Scelte, 

Ixxix, Ixxxv, Ixxxvi, Ixxxviii, xcvi, 

cxi, cxii. 
Sapientes, xlix, li ; originals and ana- 
logues, c, ci ; C text of, 88-95. 
Saxo Grammaticus, Ixxxv. 
Scala Cell, xxiii. 
Scene of the action of The Seven Sages, 

xxvii, xxxi, 149. 
Schiefner, A., Ixxxv, Ixxxvii. 
Schipper, J., xxxix. 
Schleich, G., Ixvii. 
Schmidt, F., civ. 
Schmirgel, C., vii, 154. 
Schmitz, J., XXV. 
Schofield, W. H., 155. 
Scotti, C. G., ciii. 

Scribal errors in C, Ixviii ; in R, Ixxi. 
Searles, C, ex. 
Seelig, F., xxv. 
Seith Doethon Ruvein, xxxiii. 



Senescalcus, xv, xx, xxvi, xxviii, xlix; 
originals and analogues, xci-xciii; C 
text of, 58-62. 

Sept Sages de Rome, Les, see Seven 
Sages of Rotne. 

Sercambi, G., N'ovelle, ciii, cxi. 

Series, 177. 

Seven Sages of Greece, The, Ix. 

Seven Sages of Rome, The, Oriental ver- 
sions, xi-xv ; transmission to Western 
Europe, xv-xvii ; European versions 
other than English, xvii-xxxv ; Eng- 
lish versions, xxxv-lxxvii. 

Seven Vezirs, xiv, xvi. 

Seven Wise Masters of Rome, The, see 
Seven Sages of Rome. 

Seven Wise Mistresses of Ro7ne, The, 
Ixiv, Ixxxi. 

Shied, scribal error for cried, 177. 

Sindban, xii, xiii. 

Sindibad, the sage, xii, xv, xix. 

Sindibdd-ndmeh, xii, xiv. 

Skeat, W. W., xxxix, xcix, 152, 154, 
155, 158, 161, 172. 

So it bifel opon a day, 1 57. 

So mot I the, 157. 

Socin and Stumme, Ixxxvii. 

Somigli, D., ciii. 

Sorow!, with, 160. 

Source of Oriental versions, xi ; of 
parent Western version, xvi, xvii ; of 
other Continental versions, xxi, xxiii, 
xxiv, xxvii, xxix, xxx, xxxiii-xxxv ; of 
the Middle English versions, lix ; of 
later English versions, Ixi, Ixii, Ixvi. 

Spanish MSS. and editions, xiii, xxiii, 
xxv. 

Spelling, peculiarities of, in C, Ixix, Ixx ; 
in R, Ixxi. 

Spencer, W. R., Ixxx. 

Spenser, Edmund, Faerie Queene, xcvi. 

Sqttire and his Borrow, The, xlix, 169. 

Squires, Dr., v. 

Stallaert, K., xxxiii. 

Steinhowel, H., Fabiilae Esopi, cii. 



2l6 



INDEX 



Stent, G. C, The Jade Chaplet, civ. 
Stepmother, the wicked, xii, xx, xxix, 

xxxiv. 
Steward, the covetous, in mediaeval 

story, 165. 
Storia di Stefano, xxviii. 
Storia dhina Crtidele Afatrigna, xxviii. 
Storia favolosa di Stefano, xxxii. 
Stories, number of, xii, xv, xxi; order 

of, xxi, xxxiii-xxxv, xlix, lix ; table 

of, xxxv. 
Straparola, jVights, Ixxxviii. 
Stiilpes, 158. 
Sulzbach, A., civ. 
Su7nma Recreato7-tim, xxiii. 
Suttner, A. von, Ixxxvii. 
Swedish versions, xxv, xxxiii. 
Syntipas, xii, xiii, xvi. 
Syriac version, see Sindban. 

T [ours], G. C. D[e], Les Facetievses 
iovrnees, Ixxix, Ixxxv, xcvi, xcix, cxi, 
cxii. 

Table, comparative, of lines and rhymes 
in the Middle English MSS., xl, xh ; 
of stories, xxxv ; of abbreviations, 148. 

Taylor, Jeremy, Holy Dying, civ. 

Teluccini, Maria, xxix. 

Tendlau, A. M., civ. 

Tentamina, xlix ; originals and ana- 
logues, xciii, xciv ; C text of, 64-73. 

Teza, E., xiv. 

Thar, 178. 

Thesis, initial, wanting, Ixxvi ; dissyl- 
labic, Ixxvi, 155. 

Thorns, W. J., xciv. 

Thoresby Collection, Ixx. 

Thrid time thrawes best, he, 168. 

Tkrinfalde, 168. 

Ticknor, F. O., Ixxx. 

Toeppen, M., cxiii. 

Toise, xxxi. 

Tome, 149. 

Transmission to Western Europe, xv- 
xvii. 



Trestes, 185. 

Triller, D. W., ciii. 

Trimberg, Hugo von, Der Renner, xci. 

Tupper, F., Jr., 154. 

Tuppo, F. del, Esopo, ciii. 

Tfiti-iiSmeh, xiv, xcviii. 

Twain, Mark, Ixxx. 

Typical expressions, 150. 

Tyrwhitt, T., Ixvii. 

p, interchange of, with th, 150. 
pan, interchange of, with ^e, 152. 

Unverified analogues, Ixxx, Ixxxiii, 
Ixxxvii, xci, xciv, ciii-cv. 

V (hypothetical source of K and D*), 

xxvii, XXX, xxxiv. 
Vamhagen, H., v, xxxii, xxxiii, xl, xc. 
Vasavadatta, cxi. 
Vaticiniiim, xxvi, li, Ixxxiii; originals 

and analogues, cxii-cxiv ; C text of, 

129-142. 
Vega, Lope de, El pronostico aimplido, 

cxii. 
Veriphantor, civ. 
" Versio Italica," see I. 
" Version Derimee," see D*. 
Veufve de Petrone, La, ciii. 
Vice, 158. 
Vidua, xl, xlix ; originals and analogues, 

ci-cviii; C text of, 96-104. 
Vifiaya Pitaka, Ixxix. 
Vincent of Beauvais, xciv, xcvi. 
Virgil, xix, xxi, xciv, 152. 
Virgil ill s, xlix, li, lix, 166, 170; origi- 
nals and analogues, xciv-xcvii ; C text 

of, 74-80. 
Virgilitis, romance of, xcv, xcvi. 
Visentini, I., cxiii. 
Viideron, 154. 
Vnhid, 154. 

Vogl, J., Ixxx, Ixxxiii, c. 
Voltaire, Zadig, civ, 



INDEX 



217 



■w instead of 70/1, 150. 

Wa, hir frendes was fnl, 177. 

Walter of England, ^sop, cii, ciii, 

179. 
Wane, 181. 

Ward, H. L. D., xix, xxxviii, Ixvii. 
Wardrop, M., Ixxxvii. , 

Warren, F. M., xvi. 
Was used with plural subject, 156. 
Watk, 185. 
Weber, H., v, xxxvii, 149, 152, 156, 162, 

182, 184, 185. 
Webster, W., cxiii. 
Weisse, C. F., Die Matrone von Ephe- 

sus, ciii. 
Welsh version, xxxiii, ci, 149, 154, 165, 

175, 176, 179, 180. 
wk instead of w, 1 50. 
Whannow, 159. 
Wildt, Sebastian, dramatic version of 

H, XXV. 
William of Malmesbury, Chronicle., xcv, 

162. 
Williams, R., xxxiii. 



Windsor, P. L., viii. 
Wolf, J. W., Ixxxvii. 
Won, 153. 
Wont, 163. 

" Wormond, Raphe," Ixx. 
Wright, T., xxxix, li, cii. 
Wiistenfeld, F., xcvi. 
Wybe, Von eynem bozen, xci. 
Wynkyn de Worde edition, xxi, xxiv, 
xxxvi, Ix-lxii, Ixvi. 

X, hypothetical source of y and D, xli, 
Iv, lix. 

Y, group of Middle English MSS. 

derived from y, xl-xliv, xlviii, Iv. 
y, hypothetical source of Y, xli, xliii, 

xlv-xlvii, Iv, lix. 
Ypocrase, 160. 

Zambrini, F. S., ciii. 
Zingerle, I. and J., Ixxxvii. 
Zschorke, H., Peter Rothbart, xci. 
Zuccho, A., Esopo, ciii. 
Zupitza, J., 157, 1 58, 162, 177. 



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critically edited with introductions, explanatory notes, and glossa- 
ries that adapt them to the practical needs of the class room. 

THE CHRIST OF CYNEWULF. A Poem in Three Parts: The 
Advent, The Ascension, and The Last Judgment. Edited by Albert 
S. Cook, Professor of the English Language and Literature in Yale 
University. Svo. Cloth, ciii + 294 pages. List price, $1.50; 
mailing price, $1.65. 

THE SQUYR OF LOWE DEGRE. Edited by William E. Mead, 
Professor of the English Language in Wesleyan University, Mid- 
dletown, Conn. Svo. Cloth. lxxxv-|-iii pages. List price, 
^1.25; mailing price, $1.35. 

ANDREAS AND THE FATES OF THE APOSTLES. Edited by 
George Philip Krapp, Lecturer in English in Columbia Univer- 
sity. Svo. Cloth. Ixxxi -H 23S pages. List price, ^2.00 ; mailing 
price, $2.15. 

THE SEVEN SAGES OF ROME. Edited by Killis Campbell, 
Instructor in English in the University of Texas. Svo. Cloth. 

The following volumes are in preparation : the Caedmonian " Christ 
and Satan," edited by Professor E. M. Brown, of the University of 
Cincinnati; the Csdmonian "Exodus," edited by Professor James W. 
Bright, with a Glossary by Professor Morgan Callaway, Jr., of the Uni- 
versity of Texas ; the Caedmonian " Genesis," edited by Professor 
F. A. Blackburn, of the University of Chicago; the Middle English 
"Harrowing of Hell," edited by Professor W. PI. Hulme, of the West- 
ern Reserve University ; the Cynewulfian " Riddles of the Exeter 
Book," edited by Professor Frederick Tupper, Jr., of the University of 
Vermont ; the Cynewulfian " Elene," edited by Professor Frederick 
Klaeber, of the University of Minnesota; the Middle English "Pearl," 
edited by Professor O. F. Emerson, of the Western Reserve University. 



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BOOKS ON 
OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH 



List Mailing 

price price 

Cook's First Book in Old English ^1.50 ^1.60 

Cook's Exercises in Old English 35 .40 

Cook's Sievers' Old-English Grammar (Third Edition) . 1.50 1.60 

Cook's Phonological Investigation of Old English . . . .20 .22 

Cook and Tinker's Translations from Old English Poetry i.oo 1.05 
Library of Anglo-Saxon Poetry 

Vol. I. Harrison and Sharp's Beowulf : An Anglo-Saxon 

Poem 1. 12 1.25 

Vol. II. Hunt's Caedmon's Exodus and Daniel . . . .60 .65 
Vol. III. Baskervill's Andreas: A Legend of 

St. Andrew 25 .30 

Vol. IV. Crow's Maldon and Brunnanburh 60 .65 

Vol. VI. Kent's Cynewulf's Elene 60 .65 

Albion Series of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English Poetry 

Vol.1. Cook's Christ of Cynewulf 1.50 1.65 

Vol. II. Mead's The Squyr of Lowe Degre .... 1.25 1.35 
Whitman's Christ of Cynewulf (Translated into English 

Prose) 40 -45 

Garnett's Elene ; Judith ; Athelstan, or the Fight at Brun- 
nanburh ; Byrhtnoth, or the Fight at Maldon, and the 

Dream of the Rood ; Anglo-Saxon Poems 90 i.oo 

Garnett's Beowulf, and the Fight at Finnsburg . . . . i.oo i.io 

Hall's Old English Idyls 40 -45 

Carpenter's Chaucer's Prologue and Knightes Tale . . .75 .85 

Carpenter's Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Reader 60 .70 

Lounsbury's Chaucer's Parlament of Foules 50 .55 

Perrin's Ueber Thomas Castelford's Chronik von England .50 .55 
Baldwin's InflectionsandSyntaxofMalory'sMorted'Arthur 1.40 1.50 
Kittredge's Observations on the Language of Chaucer's 
Troilus. (Studies and Notes in Philology and Lit- 
erature) 4.00 



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